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

The glaze on the present vase is based on that of Song-dynasty Guan ware, one of the ‘five famous wares of the Song dynasty’. Song-dynasty wares were highly admired by the Yongzheng emperor, a keen antiquarian who collected and studied material from earlier dynasties. The Yongzheng emperor is recorded to have specifically ordered that porcelain wares imitating the various stoneware glazes of the Song dynasty be produced at the imperial kilns in Jingdezhen. In fact, the famous kiln director Tang Yin became particularly well-known for the success of these imitation Song wares. Some of the finer imitation wares bear imperial reign marks, as seen on the base of the present vase.

The combination of the five-lobed form and delicate size of this vase appear to be extremely rare. All other similar examples are found in Ge-type glaze, including one in the collection of the Palace Museum, Beijing, illustrated in Selection of Ge Ware: The Palace Museum Collection and Archaeological Discoveries, Beijing, 2017, pp. 270-71, no. 132 (28 cm.); one in the Wang Xing Lou Collection, illustrated in Imperial Perfection: The Palace Porcelain of Three Chinese Emperors, Kangxi – Yongzheng – Qianlong, Hong Kong, 2004, no. 79 (27.9 cm.); one from The Irving Collection, sold at Christie’s New York, 20 March 2019, lot 826 (21 cm.); and one from the collections of H. F. Parfitt and Mrs Alfred Clark, sold at Sotheby’s London, 25 March 1975, lot 113.