It had been converted into a lamp at some point in the first half of the 20th century (but not drilled to accommodate a wire). The vase was among items in the sale staged in Fairfield, New Jersey, that came by descent from Dr Morris V Shelanski, (1921-2020) of Wynnewood, Pennsylvania.
The son of Lithuanian immigrants who grew up in south Philadelphia, he and his brother were among the nation’s first toxicologists and together invented Betadine, the iodine-based anti-bacterial liquid used since 1953 as a pre- and post-surgical wash.
A regular buyer at antique stores from Philadelphia to Boston from the 1960s, Dr Shelanski’s obituary writer noted that “his passion for collecting was tempered only by his wife and he often had one of his children sneak the latest painting or Chinese vase into a closet in the house, lest he be caught and have to face her wrath”.
The majority of items offered by Tenmoku from the estate had been in storage since the 1980s.
Meiping in Mink
Chinese white glazed incised dragon vase with Kangxi mark, $135,000 (£107,000) at Tenmoku.
This 14½in (37cm) high meiping is decorated in the Mink style with a silky tianbai (sweet white) type glaze and anhua carved design of a five-clawed dragon chasing the flaming pearl in the celestial sky above cresting waves.
It was catalogued as 18th century and had a four-character Kangxi (1661-1722) mark written in kai-shu (regular or modern) script to a circular recess in the base.
