A fine and rare 'eel-skin' glazed vase, hu, Seal mark and period of Qianlong | 清乾隆 鱔魚黃釉出戟如意雙繫壺 《大清乾隆年製》款

A Japanese private collection, by repute.

Christie's Hong Kong, 27th May 2008, lot 1591.

傳日本私人收藏

香港佳士得2008年5月27日，編號1591

A Qianlong mark and period teadust-glazed vase of this form is illustrated in Chinese Ceramics in the Idemitsu Collection, Tokyo, 1987, pl. 229. See also an example with a sky-blue glaze, included in the Illustrated Catalogue of Tokyo National Museum. Chinese Ceramics II, Tokyo, 1990, cat. no. 722. Compare also a teadust-glazed vase of this form sold in these rooms, 21st May 1979, lot 131; and another sold twice in these rooms, Sotheby's Hong Kong, 31st October 2004, lot 219 and 9th October 2020, lot 54. A Qianlong mark and period bronze simulation vase lacking the raised flanges, from the Meiyintang collection, illustrated in Regina Krahl, Chinese Ceramics from the Meiyintang Collection, vol. 2, London, 1994, pl. 953, was sold in these rooms, 5th October 2011, lot 19. 

Modelled after a contemporary bronze prototype, which would, in turn, have been inspired by archaic bronze lei of the Western Zhou dynasty, vases of this form were first made in porcelain in the Yongzheng reign. See, for example, a Yongzheng mark and period claire-de-lune vase in the Beijing Palace Museum, illustrated in Qingdai yuyao ciqi [Qing imperial porcelain], vol. 1, pt. II, Beijing, 2005, pl. 116; and a flambé-glazed example, sold at Christie’s Hong Kong, 29th April 2002, lot 654, and again in these rooms, 8th October 2006, lot 1006.