A very fine and rare Imperial Chinese flambé-glazed bottle vase with an incised Qianlong seal mark of the period was sold today, 23 July, for £337,250 at Bonhams auction of the contents of Trelissick House, Cornwall. It had been estimated at £70,000-100,000. It was acquired by a collector in mainland China.
Trelissick House is the former home of Leonard Daneham Cunliffe, one of Britain’s most distinguished collectors, and the contents are being sold over two days – 23rd & 24th July. The sale is made up of approximately 750 lots and is estimated to realize between £1m – £1.5m.
The Imperial Chinese vase is believed to have been acquired by Leonard Cunliffe prior to 1918.
Colin Sheaf, Head of Chinese Art at Bonhams who auctioned the vase, said: “This exceptional price reflects the rarity and quality of the vase. It would have been made in Jingdezhen, China’s unique porcelain-producing city in Jiangxi Province, where for centuries China’s most glittering ceramics were created by master potters for display and daily use at the Imperial Court in Beijing’s mysterious, overpowering, lavishly- decorated Forbidden City.”
Flambé-glazed vases were particularly admired by Western collectors and craftsmen, who appreciated the beauty of the deep red streaked with blue as well as the complexity of the technique and the immense control required to achieve successful results.