A VERY RARE UNDERGLAZE-BLUE AND COPPER-RED GARLIC-HEAD VASE

Details

A VERY RARE UNDERGLAZE-BLUE AND COPPER-RED GARLIC-HEAD VASE
QIANLONG SEAL MARK AND OF THE PERIOD

Finely painted in brilliant purplish-blue and crushed raspberry-red tones around the globular body with three Buddhist lions playing with ribboned brocade balls amidst flames, the shoulder with a band of archaistic dragons reserved on a lattice-ground, the neck with three bands of ornamental leaves, ruyi-scrolls and lotus sprigs, each divided by raised ribs framed by single-line borders, surmounted by a garlic head decorated with broad lotus petals, the slightly flared foot encircled by lotus lappets (minor rim frits)
15 1/4 in. (38.5 cm.) high, box

Lot Essay

A smaller vase of this design was sold in these Rooms, 8 October 1990, lot 482.

An almost identical vase but with a lotus scroll replacing the dragon border on the shoulder in the Shanghai Museum is illustrated in Underglaze Blue and Red, fig. 126. Another is illustrated in Chinese Porcelain, The S.C. Ko Tianminlou Collection, vol. I, pl. 113, pp. 155 and 157; the present vase is much larger in size than the others.

(US$32,000-45,000)

More from Important Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art

View All