A RU-TYPE TRIPOD WASHER SEAL MARK AND PERIOD OF YONGZHENG

of circular section, the shallow straight sides resting on three short cabriole legs, covered overall save for the tips of the legs with a lustrous greyish-blue glaze suffused with a network of faint golden crackle, the base centred with a six-character seal mark in underglaze blue encircled by nine small spur marks near the edge

Sotheby's Hong Kong, 1st November 1994, lot 106.

The washer is in good condition except for minute and shallow glaze flakes to the edges of the feet.
"In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective, qualified opinion. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

The present washer is a fine example of the technical perfection achieved by craftsmen working at the imperial kilns in Jingdezhen during the Yongzheng period. As with many Yongzheng and Qianlong monochrome wares, this vessel is a reinterpretation of an archaic bronze lian form which was first developed by Song craftsmen. Monochrome vessels such as the present appear to be the product of Tang Ying (1682-1756), the Superintendent of the Imperial Kilns in Jingdezhen, who reintroduced simplicity of form and the absence of decoration as the new stylistic trends following research into celebrated Song wares such as Guan, Ge, Longquan celadon and Ru.

A closely related example was sold in these rooms, 12th May 1976, lot 232; and another, but covered in a Ge-type glaze, was sold twice in these rooms, 26th November 1980, lot 372, again, 18th November 1986, lot 91, from the T.Y. Chao collection, and a third time at Christie’s Hong Kong, 1st December 2010, lot 2819, from the Greenwald collection. Compare also a copper-red glazed washer, illustrated in John Ayers, Chinese Ceramics in the Baur Collection, vol. 2, Geneva, 1999, pl. 258; and a white-glazed example, but with an incised Yongzheng reign mark, in the National Palace Museum, Taipei, included in the Museum’s exhibition Qingdai danse you ciqi tezhan [Special exhibition of monochrome glazed porcelain of the Qing], 1981, cat. no. 61.

For the prototype to this piece see a Ru censer, but with higher sides in line with the original archaic bronze form, in the collection of Sir David Percival and now in the British Museum, London, illustrated in Ru, Guan, Jun, Guangdong and Yixing Wares in the Percival David Foundation of Chinese Art, London, 1999, pl. A44; and a Ge example in the Palace Museum, Beijing, published in The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum. Porcelain of the Song Dynasty (II), Hong Kong, 1996, pl. 48.