robustly potted with a flattened globular body, rising from a straight oval foot to a cylindrical neck set with a pair of scroll handles, applied overall in a thick pale bluish-grey glaze picked out with a matrix of light brown crackles, save for the footring dressed in brown, the recessed base similarly glazed and inscribed with a six-character seal mark in underglaze blue

Sotheby's Hong Kong, 4th May 1994, lot 112.

Exquisitely covered with an even bluish-grey glaze on a large swelling form, this moonflask represents the signature works of the Yongzheng period, whose deceptive simplicity made the greatest demands on the potters’ aesthetic conception and technical ability. In form and glaze it embodies the emperor’s fascination with antiquity and the resulting passion for archaism, expressed though borrowing from antiques as a source of inspiration for innovation. Such even glaze and perfect proportions on a vessel of this large size was only achievable through the unprecedented refinements in porcelain production which was due to Yongzheng’s demanding standards and intense patronage of the arts.

From the first year of his reign, the Yongzheng Emperor commissioned items from the Palace Workshops, whose output changed in nature as a result. Simplicity of form and absence of decoration were stylistic trends introduced by Tang Ying (1682-1756), Superintendent of the Imperial kilns in Jingdezhen. Under his supervision, research into celebrated Song glazes such as Ru, guan and Jun wares saw the re-emergence of monochrom🙈e porcelain covered in luminous glazes to simulate the earlier wares on both contemporary and archaistic forms.

In form this p𝄹iece is inspired by much s♋maller moonflasks of the Yongle period (1403-1424), which in turn found their roots in Shang dynasty bronze vessels. While the flat oval foot of the Ming original has been preserved, the Qing craftsman has updated the shape by replacing the tapering neck with a straight neck and increasing the size of the neck and handles in relation to the body. These subtle changes provide the perfect silhouette to display the beauty of the glaze to its full extent.

The greyish-blue colour of the present moonflask is made in imitation of Ru ware, one of the ‘Five Great Wares’ of the Song dynasty (960-1279) and particularly highly regarded by the Yongzheng Emperor. During his reign, vessels of various forms that were either rooted in antiquity or uniquely conceived and covered in a Ru-type glaze were produced. In the production of the original glaze in the Song period, nature served as inspiration for the colour and texture, the colour of which was famously described as ‘the colour of the sk♈y after rain’. The swelling form of this moonflask and lobed handles, together with the delicate blue tones emerging through the grey, successfully continue the allusion to the sky in a tone suited to contemporary taste.

No other closely related example appears to have been published, although Yongzheng mark and period moonflasks of this form are known with various Song-inspired glazes and decoration; a guan-type example of similar size, was offered at Christie’s New York, 23rd March 2011, lot 2081; a smaller celadon glazed version, but carved with lotus blooms, in the National Palace Museum, Taipei, was included in the Museum’s exhibition Qing Kang Yong Qian ming ci tezhan/ K’ang-hsi, Yung-cheng and Ch’ien-lung Porcelain Ware from the Ch’ing Dynasty in the National Museum Palace, 1986, cat. no. 61; and another from the collections of Sir Frederick Bruce and Robert C. Bruce, sold twice in our London rooms, 12th May 1953, lot 96, and again, 11th December 1984, lot 437, from the Raymond F.A. Riesco collection, and sold two further times, once at Christie’s New York, 5th June 1986, lot 353, and again in our New York rooms, 16th/17th September 2014, lot 157. Blue and white decorated moonflasks of this form are well-known, such as a bird-and-flower painted moonflask from the Sir Percival David collection, and now in the British Museum, London, illustrated in Regina Krahl and Jessica Harrison-Hall, Chinese Ceramics. Highlights from the Sir David Percival Collection, London, 2009, pl. 44; and another painted with a Ming-style composite flower scroll in the Palace Museum, Beijing, published in Gugong bowuguan can Qingdai yuyao ciqi [Qing porcelains from the imperial kilns preserv🅘ed in the Palace Museum], Beijing, 2005, vol. I, bk. 2, pl. 41.