A fine teadust-glazed handled vase, Seal mark and period of Qianlong | 清乾隆 茶葉末釉貫耳尊 《大清乾隆年製》款

The present lot with its rich opaque brown glaze is related to the well-known 'tea-dust ‘and 'eel-skin' varieties but is less green in tone and may have held a place of its own in the vast spectrum of Qianlong glaze types. It may represent the glaze known as 'monk's-robe' brown (lao seng yi), one of the various 'tea-dust' related glazes.

This form with the subtle shaping of the lip is based on a Yongzheng prototype without lugs, where the foot is pierced with two horizontal slots, see a guan-type vase of related shape from the Wang Xing Lou collection, illustrated in A Selection from the Wang Xing Lou Collection - Imperial Perfection: The Palace Porcelain from Three Chinese Emperors - Kangxi, Yongzheng, Qianlong, Hong Kong, 2004, pl.80. Compare also a similarly shape teadust-glazed Qianlong vase in the Baur Collection, illustrated in J. Ayers, Chinese Ceramics in the Baur Collection, vol. 11, 1999, Geneva, pl. 296.