A Guan-type handled 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

Zhongguo mingtao riben xunhui zhan. Gangtai mingjia shoucang taoci jingpin [Exhibition of Famous Chinese Ceramics Touring Japan. Fine Ceramics from Private Hong Kong and Taiwanese Collections], Nihonbashi Takashimaya, Tokyo, 1992, cat. no. 224.

《中國名陶日本巡迴展•港台名家收藏陶瓷精品》，日本橋高島屋，東京，1992年，編號224

While the form is derived originally from Shang and Zhou dynasty metal prototypes, the thick lustrous glaze and brown-washed footring of the present vase are evocative of Song dynasty ceramic renderings of the earlier form, especially guan ware, much admired by the Qianlong Emperor (r. 1736-1795).

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 Museum, 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.