A VERY RARE IMPERIAL SKY-BLUE GLAZED VASE MALLET-SHAPED VASE

Estimated Value:

8.000 € - 12.000 €

Result:

64.750 € incl. Premium and VAT

Description:

China, underglaze-blue Kangxi six-character mark and period
H. 16,2 cm, d. 11,7 cm
Of mallet-shape with a sky-blue glaze ‚tian lan you‘, called ‚Clair-de-Lune‘ (Moonshine) in the West. On the base a sixcharacter mark in underglaze blue in two horizontal lines.
Collection of the German diplomat Herrmann Dobrikow (d. Beijing 1928), by descent to a family member
Dobrikow was German diplomat to China in the early 20th century. Dobrikow developed a deep attachment to China and established a strong collection of Chinese antiques which encompassed many categories including pottery and porcelain from Tang to Qing dynasties, later bronzes, snuff bottles and textiles
Sale of his collection at Lepke, Berlin ‚Sammlung Dobrikow Peking Chinesische Kunst, 4./5.3.1930, lot 202
Published:
Lepke, Berlin ‚Sammlung Dobrikow Peking Chinesische Kunst, 4./5.3.1930, lot 202
Suebsman/ Antonin ‚Porcelain Treasures of the Kangxi Period‘, Hetjens-Museum Duesseldorf 2015, p. 106, no. 33
Exhibited:
‚The Dancing Dragon/ China Contemporary‘ Hetjens Museum, Duesseldorf, 19.7.2015 - 17.1.2016, no. 33
The only known comparable piece is preserved in the collection of the Palace Museum Beijing and is slightly smaller as the present piece (15,8 cm). It’s shape, which the Chinese nicknamed ‚horse-shoe‘ (ma ti zun), was presumably a Song dynasty borrowing from the West Asian perfume bottles made of glass that entered China via the Silk Road and by sea. They were used as flower vases in China, whilst tea ceremony masters were particularly fond of using them in Japan. The original celadon version from the kilns in Longquan had a slightly more anguklar shoulder and bearded rim and was called ‚kinuta‘ (mallet) by the Japanese. This traditional shape was modified slightly in the Kangxi period, an original presumably being sent as a prototype to the Imperial Porcelain Manufactory, see ‚Kangxi Yongzheng Qianlong - Qing Porcelain from the Palace Museum Collection, 1989, no. 137, p. 154
Japanese kintsugi gold lacquer repair of one piece over the base and the body, very short hairline above the stand along the rim

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