A Guan-type faceted vase (Fanghu), Seal mark and period of Qianlong | 清乾隆 仿官釉貫耳方壺 《大清乾隆年製》款

Vallin Galleries, Wilton, circa 2000. 

Vallin Galleries，威爾頓，約2000年

The present vessel evokes multiple layers of classicism with its form deriving from archaic Shang and Zhou dynasty bronze vessels and its unctuous glaze, suffused with fine craquelure, evoking Song dynasty Guan wares. 

A similar vase in the collection of the National Palace Museum, 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; one from the Art Gallery of the Chinese University of 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 vases of this type, one with a crackled glaze 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. Two further vases of this type are illustrated in Qing Imperial Monochromes: The Zande Lou Collection, Hong Kong, 2005, pl. 32; another is illustrated by John Ayers in The Baur Collection, vol. III, Geneva, 1972, no. A344; and an example from the Garner Collection was included in the Oriental Ceramic Society exhibition The Arts of the Ch'ing Dynasty, London, 1964, cat. no. 276. See also, another from the Edward T. Chow Collection sold in our Hong Kong rooms, 25th November 1980, lot 91; one from the collection of William and Jennifer Shaw sold most recently in these rooms, 11th September 2012, lot 54; and lastly, one from the Stephen Junkunc III Collection, sold in the same rooms, 21st September 2021, lot 142.