An extremely rare Jun-imitation vase (Tianqiuping), Seal mark and period of Yongzheng

Seattle Art Museum, Seattle.

Sotheby Parke Bernet, New York, 5th November 1977, lot 219.

Imposing yet subtle, sturdy yet sensuous; the present lot is a rare and important testament to the high quality and vibrant experimentation in porcelain production under the command of the Yongzheng Emperor. More than just statesman and warrior, the Yongzheng Emperor was also a connoisseur. Growing up surrounded by the greatest works of Chinese art, Yongzheng developed a passion for the shapes and glazes of antiquity. With a particular interest in the subtle enchanting glazes of the Song dynasty, Yongzheng tasked his artisans to study antique pieces from the court collection and develop new experimental glazes for use at the imperial kilns in Jingdezhen. The resulting glazes, a synergy of ancient beauty and modern technical ability, are a marvel to behold and this imitation of a 'Jun' glaze is no exception. 

'Jun' ware, arguably the most spectacular of the major Song dynasty wares, is typified by specimens produced at the Juntai kilns in Yuzhou though celebrated pieces were made at many kiln sites around Henan. With their simple yet robust forms and bold irregular purple splashes across thickly glazed surfaces, 'Jun' wares were much beloved by the literati of the Song and so too, as it seems, by the Yongzheng Emperor centuries later. 

Mimicking the hazy optical blue and mottled red-purple found on the best Song pieces, Yongzheng period 'Jun' wares are among the rarest and most prized of these experimentally glazed pieces and a favorite of the emperor. As the celebrated superintendent of the imperial kilns, Tang Ying (1682-1756), recorded in 1735 in his Taocheng jishi bei ji ('Commemorative Stele on Ceramic Production'), no less than nine varieties of Jun glazes were developed on Yongzheng's orders, five of which were based directly on Song artifacts sent from the Forbidden City. So great was the desire to capture the essence of Jun wares that Tang Ying even sent craftsmen with his secretary Wu Yaopu to Junzhou in 1729 to work with local potters and attempt to develop a truly 'authentic' recipe.

Tianqiuping or 'celestial globe' vases, named after their resemblance to a planet, were first created in the early Ming dynasty, with the form perhaps inspired by Islamic copper or glass prototypes of the Middle East; see Ma Wenkuan, 'A study of Islamic elements in Ming Dynasty Porcelain', Li Baoping et al, eds., Porcelain and Society, China Archaeology and Art Digest, vol. 3, no. 4, June 2000, p. 12, figs 13-14. This form became popular during the Qianlong period and was produced in a variety of glazes, decorative techniques and motifs. Tianqiuping from the Yongzheng period, however, are far less common; all the more so those of this massive size and Song-inspired monochrome glazing.

Only a handful of tianqiuping with this glazing appear to be known and almost never appear on the market. Compare a very similar unpublished vase of Yongzheng mark from the collection of Benjamin Altman (1840-1913) in the Metropolitan Museum of Art (accession no. 14.40.163) (Fig. 1); and another in the collection of the Palace Museum, Beijing, published on the Museum's website (accession no. gu 00229104) (Fig. 2).

Compare also Yongzheng period 'Jun' wares of other forms including a similarly bulbous 'alms bowl' from the Baur Collection (coll. no. A356), illustrated in John Ayers, Chinese Ceramics in the Baur Collection, vol. 2, Geneva, 1999, pl. 264, alongside a vase of a more common pear-shaped hu form with rectangular perforations in the footring, pl. 263. Compare another vase of this hu form with an incised Yongzheng mark, sold in our Hong Kong rooms, 30th October 2002, lot 230, and subsequently illustrated in Sotheby's Thirty Years in Hong Kong, Hong Kong, 2003, p. 155, no. 141; and another, sold at Christie's New York, 29th March 2006, lot 463.