A blue and white hu vase box
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A very fine and large blue and white pear-shaped vase, hu
Qianlong seal mark and of the period
Heavily potted with a wide generous body and two squared archaistic pierced handles on the shoulder, the body painted with a continuous meander of tendrils issuing large open lotus-heads arranged in three horizontal bands, the neck with shou character roundels on a ground of key pattern between squared spirals at the rim and cloud collars above the handles, a band of large lappets above the foot and a narrow band of classic scroll, box.
44.5cm (17½in) high (2).
Sold for £505,250 inc. premium

Footnotes

  • Provenance: A&J Speelman Ltd., London, purchased by the present owner in 2004

    Vessels such as the present lot have their origins in the archaic ritual vessel called a hu, but in its size and exaggerated form this present lot serves to proclaim the skill and technique of Qing Dynasty porcelain manufacture. The lotus scroll also has distant origins dating back to the Yuan Dynasty; by the Qianlong period it had become the very formal, evenly-spaced pattern with self-concious echoes of the past seen on the present lot. A blue and white vase of this exaggerated archaistic hu form and with very similar lotus scroll decoration is illustrated by Geng Baochang, Ming Qing ciqi jianding, Hong Kong, 1993, p.267, fig.455. Compare also a very similar vase sold at Christie's New York, 22 March 1999, lot 294.

Category: Asian Art / Chinese Works of Art


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Olivia Hamilton Bonhams
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Specialist - Chinese Works of Art