An underglaze-blue and red and celadon-glazed square baluster vase, Mark and period of Kangxi

Sotheby's London, 14th May 2014, lot 219.

Quadrangular porcelain vases with angled sides and flaring trumpet neck were an innovative form introduced during the Kangxi reign (1662-1722). Whereas vases of this form were typically painted in famille-verte enamels, the present example is distinguished in its striking use of underglaze blue, copper red, and celadon glaze – a palette more typically reserved for rounded vases, brushpots, and jardinières.

Compare a similar square vase, painted with mountainous river landscape, but with sprays of bamboo on the neck, sold in our Paris rooms, 15th June 2023, lot 124; and another example sold in our New York rooms, 17th March 2021, lot 271, featuring additional literati-style inscriptions on the upper right corners of their painted sides as if they were hanging scrolls. See also a related blue and white vase, painted with a night visit to the Red Cliff and inscribed with the poem, illustrated by Wang Qingzheng in Kangxi Porcelain Wares from the Shanghai Museum Collection, Shanghai, 1998, pl. 3.