Notes

LOT ESSAY The present vase is of the form known in Chinese as biqi ping (荸荠瓶), named for its compressed, rounded body resembling the water chestnut. With its straight neck, gently sloping shoulders, and flattened globular body, this elegant silhouette achieved particular popularity during the Kangxi, Yongzheng, and Qianlong reigns, when it was produced in a wide range of monochrome and decorated wares. The vessel is covered overall with a finely mottled teadust glaze. The neck is encircled with an applied orange-red band edged in gilt and centered on the front with a raised rectangular plaque carved in regular script with the gilt inscription reading yuci (御賜, “imperially bestowed”). The refined execution of the inscription—rare on imperial monochrome porcelains—strongly indicates that the vase was intended as a presentation piece bestowed by the court upon a meritorious recipient, underscoring its special status and rarity. A nearly identical Qianlong mark-and-period teadust-glazed example, similarly inscribed yuci on the neck, is in in the collection of the Shenyang Imperial Palace Museum and illustrated in The Prime Cultural Relics Collected by the Shenyang Imperial Palace Museum: The Chinaware Volume The Second Part, Shenyang, 2008, pp. 98–9.