A rare Ge-type quadruple vase, Seal mark and period of Qianlong | 清乾隆 仿哥釉四聯瓶 《乾隆年製》款

A German private collection.

S. Marchant & Son, London.

Sotheby's London, 7th November 2007, lot 432.

Sui Yuan Zhai Collection.

Christie's London, 11th May 2015, lot 9.

德國私人收藏

馬錢特，倫敦

倫敦蘇富比2007年11月7日，編號432

隨緣齋收藏

倫敦佳士得2015年5月11日，編號9

Recent Acquisitions, S. Marchant & Son, London, 2005, cat. no. 46.

《Recent Acquisitions》，馬錢特，倫敦, 2005年，編號46

It is rare to find Qianlong vases of this quadruple form, although a similar blue and white vase decorated with flowers, in the Shanghai Museum, is illustrated in Liu Liang-yu, Ch'ing Official and Popular Wares, Taipei, 1991, p. 151. Vases of this type closely follow the Yongzheng prototype. See a Yongzheng mark and period Ru-type vase, in the National Palace Museum, Taipei, included in the exhibition Qing Monochrome Porcelain, National Palace Museum, Taipei, 1981, cat.no. 77; and a guan-type vase from the collections of James W. and Marilyn Alsdorf and Robert Chang, sold recently in these rooms, 9th October 2020, lot 22. 

The fashion for multi-spouted vases reached its peak during the Qianlong reign. For example see a pale-blue glazed quadruple vase, each constituent vase of ganlanping form, with a Qianlong reign mark and of the period, sold in these rooms, 14th November 1989, lot 179; a six-mouthed conjoined teadust-glazed Qianlong vase in the National Palace Museum included in the Special Exhibition of K'ang-hsi, Yung-cheng and Ch'ien-lung Porcelain Ware from the Ch'ing Dynasty in the National Palace Museum, Taipei, 1986, pl. 96; and another similar six-mouthed vase covered with a clair-de-lune glaze, sold in these rooms, 19th November 1986, and illustrated in The S. C. Ko Tianminlou Collection, vol. 1, Hong Kong, 1987, pl. 149.