A VERY RARE FLAMBE-GLAZED ARCHAISTIC BALUSTER VASE seal mark and period of Yongzheng

of early bronze lei inspiration, the baluster body supported by a high splayed foot rising to high shoulders and a waisted neck, the shoulders flanked by a pair of elephant-trunk handles and separated by a pair of ridged vertical flanges, applied with four vertical flanges at the neck and foot, covered overall with a lustrous purplish-red glaze, highlighted with cascades of sky-blue, the raised areas and rim reserved in a mushroom-brown glaze, the interior draining away to reveal a pale blue glaze with white striations, the base glazed coffee-brown with grey-blue mottling and incised with the four-character seal mark, hardwood stand 

Christie's Hong Kong, 29th April 2002, lot 654. 

It is very rare to find flambé vases of this form.  See a similar vase with the same size and form in the Nanjing Museum, illustrated in Imperial Kiln Porcelain of Qing Dynasty, Shanghai, 1998, no. 16.  A similarly shaped Yongzheng vase with sky-blue glaze is illustrated in Selected Porcelain of the Flourishing Qing Dynasty at the Palace Museum, no. 62.  See a related vase of the Qianlong period with a sky-blue glaze included in the Illustrated Catalogue of Tokyo National Museum.  Chinese Ceramics, vol. II, Tokyo, 1990, pl. 722; a blue and white Qianlong vase of the same form sold in these rooms, 26th October 2003, lot 143; and another Qianlong flambe-glazed vase of the same form sold in our New York rooms, 4th June 1986, lot 137.