YONGZHENG SIX-CHARACTER SEAL MARK IN UNDERGLAZE BLUE AND OF THE PERIOD (1723-1735)

Vases of this ‘chrysanthemum’ shape are exceptionally rare. The only two other monochrome-glazed examples that appear to be recorded are the turquoise-glazed vase of approximately the same size (27 cm. high) in the Palace Museum, Beijing, illustrated in Gugong Bowuyuan cang Qingdai Yuyao Ciqi (Qing-Dynasty Imperial Porcelain from the Palace Museum), Beijing, pp. 270-71, no. 121 (Fig. 1), which is dated to the Yongzheng period, and another turquoise-glazed example (25.3 cm. high) in the National Palace Museum, Taipei, which has been dated to the Kangxi period. Two other vases of this shape and dating to the Yongzheng period, but decorated in doucai with flowering leafy vines, include the vase in the Palace Museum, Beijing, illustrated in Selected Porcelain of the Flourishing Qing Dynasty, Beijing, 1994, p. 173, no. 17, and again in The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum – 38 – Porcelains in Polychrome and Contrasting Colors, Hong Kong, 1999, p. 249, no. 228, and the virtually identical doucai example sold at Christie’s New York, 19 March 2009, lot 560 (Fig. 2). Both of these doucai-decorated examples are of slightly smaller size (25.9 cm.) and bear apocryphal Chenghua marks. The construction of such vases must have presented a number of challenges to the potter, and given their relatively large size, combined with the complexity of the form, it is perhaps not surprising that so few examples have survived to the present day.

This type of narrow lobing is more typically associated with smaller vessels, particularly the richly colored monochrome 'chrysanthemum' dishes made during the Yongzheng period, such as the twelve in the collection of the Palace Museum, Beijing, illustrated in Kangxi Yongzheng Qianlong, Hong Kong, 1989, p. 316, pl. 145. In addition, a small flambé-glazed teapot of ‘chrysanthemum’ design, with an incised four-character Yongzheng seal mark, is also in the Palace Museum, illustrated in Gugong Bowuyuan cang Qingdai Yuyao Ciqi (Qing-Dynasty Imperial Porcelain from the Palace Museum), pp.312-313, no. 121.