A GUAN-TYPE HANDLED VASE, FANGHU

QIANLONG SEAL MARK AND PERIOD 

清乾隆 仿官釉貫耳方壺 《大清乾隆年製》款

of rectangular section, the sturdily potted pear-shaped body sweeping up to a gently flared neck flanked by a pair of angular lug handles, all supported on a splayed foot centred with an elongated aperture on each of the shorter sides, covered overall save for the footring with an even pale greyish-blue glaze with faint crackles, the base inscribed in underglaze blue with a six-character seal mark

Height 27.3 cm, 10? in.

While the form of this vase was derived from bronze fanghu of the Shang and Zhou dynasties, its thick lustrous glaze and brown-washed footring reveal it was inspired by Song dynasty ceramic renderings of the original form. The Qianlong emperor was particularly fond of the thick jade-like glazes made at Southern Song dynasty guan (official) kilns, and thus encouraged his crafstmen to reproduce them.

A similar example in the National Palace Museum in Taipei is published in the Illustrated Catalogue of the Ch'ing Dynasty Porcelain in the National Palace Museum Ch'ien-lung Ware and Other Wares, Tokyo, 1981, pl. 82; another example in the collection in the Art Gallery, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, was included in the exhibition Qing Imperial Porcelain of the Kangxi, Yongzheng and Qianlong Reigns, Hong Kong, 1995, cat. no. 63; and two other vases, one with a crackled and the other with a plain guan-type glaze, are published in Regina Krahl, Chinese Ceramics from the Meiyintang Collection, vol. II, London, 1994, pls 874 and 875. A smaller pair is illustrated in Qing Imperial Monochromes The Zande Lou Collection, Art Museum The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, 2005, pl. 32.

本品壺形雖以商周鑄器為源，厚釉瑩亮，圈足呈褐，卻如早期宋瓷，尤似乾隆帝所喜之官窰。台北故宮博物院藏一近例，載於《故宮清瓷圖錄：乾隆窰．嘉慶窰．道光窰》，東京，1981年，圖版82。另一例藏於香港中文大學文物館，展於《清瓷萃珍──清代康雍乾官窯瓷器》，香港，1995年，編號63。另有二壺，皆仿官釉，一例冰裂，另一例光素無紋，載於康蕊君，《玫茵堂中國陶瓷》，卷2，倫敦，1994年，圖版874及875。胡惠春舊藏且有一對，尺寸較小，圖載於《暫得樓清代官窰單色釉瓷器》，香港中文大學文物館，香港，2005年，圖版32。