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Lot Essay
It is very rare to find a massive vase of this size with cobalt-blue glaze from the Yongzheng period in comparison to the more common examples with Qianlong marks. Large monochrome vases like the present example were made as part of decorative furnishings for the Palace during the Qing dynasty. With its large globular body, the form of the present vase was one of the most popular forms and can be found in various colours and sizes. The rich cobalt-blue glaze of the present vase is sometimes referred to as ‘sacrificial blue’, deriving from the use of vessels bearing this coloured glaze during sacrifices at the Imperial Temple of Heaven. In 1369, the first Ming dynasty emperor Hongwu issued an edict declaring that the vessels used on the Imperial altars should henceforth be made of porcelain. Each temples was associated with a specific colour of porcelain, and in addition to blue being used in the Temple of Heaven, red was used in the Temple of the Sun, yellow in the Temple of Earth, and white in the Temple of the Moon.
The potters at the Imperial kilns in the 18th century were highly skilled, and the technology used to produce porcelains was highly developed. By the 18th century refining techniques were also quite sophisticated and the additional elements in the cobalt ore to be used in colouring rich cobalt blue glazes, like the glaze on the current vessel, could largely be controlled. Elements such as iron and manganese, for example, had considerable effect on the colour of the fired glaze. In addition, pigments that were high in alumina tended to develop cobalt aluminates in firing, resulting a cooler blue tone, while pigments which contained more silica produced cobalt silicates, resulting in warmer, more purplish, blues.
One rare Yongzheng example of similar size from the Xulong Collection was exhibited at the Zhejiang Museum and published in A Collection of Porcelain, Beijing, 2006, pp. 118-119. A smaller (33 cm. high) cobalt-blue-glazed bottle vase with Yongzheng mark from the E.T. Chow Collection was sold at Sotheby’s Hong Kong, 3 April 2019, lot 3658. A cobalt-blue-glazed vase of similar size but slightly different shape from the present vase was sold at Christie’s New York, 25 September 2020, lot 1614.
The potters at the Imperial kilns in the 18th century were highly skilled, and the technology used to produce porcelains was highly developed. By the 18th century refining techniques were also quite sophisticated and the additional elements in the cobalt ore to be used in colouring rich cobalt blue glazes, like the glaze on the current vessel, could largely be controlled. Elements such as iron and manganese, for example, had considerable effect on the colour of the fired glaze. In addition, pigments that were high in alumina tended to develop cobalt aluminates in firing, resulting a cooler blue tone, while pigments which contained more silica produced cobalt silicates, resulting in warmer, more purplish, blues.
One rare Yongzheng example of similar size from the Xulong Collection was exhibited at the Zhejiang Museum and published in A Collection of Porcelain, Beijing, 2006, pp. 118-119. A smaller (33 cm. high) cobalt-blue-glazed bottle vase with Yongzheng mark from the E.T. Chow Collection was sold at Sotheby’s Hong Kong, 3 April 2019, lot 3658. A cobalt-blue-glazed vase of similar size but slightly different shape from the present vase was sold at Christie’s New York, 25 September 2020, lot 1614.