.jpg?w=1)
Lot Essay
A seemingly identical vase in The Palace Museum, Beijing, measuring 57.4 cm. high, is illustrated in The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum, Blue and White Porcelain with Underglazed Red (III), The Commercial Press, Hong Kong, 2000, fig. 126, where the authors note that the vase was made under the supervision of Tang Yin who provided a sketch of this innovative form. It is recorded that the emperor Qianlong was very pleased with both the colour and the painting style of the vase; it is also recorded that the vase was made in celebration of an Imperial birthday.
No other blue and white vase of this exact decoration appears to have been published. However, a smaller blue and white vase (36 cm.) of this form, painted with matching decoration apart from the central motif where the dragons are replaced with a pair of fish below a canopy, was included in a sale held at Sotheby's London, 8 June 1993, lot 69.
A small number of yellow-ground underglaze-blue decorated 'dragon' hexagonal vases of this pattern are known. The first in the Nanjing Museum, is included in Imperial Kiln Porcelain of Qing Dynasty: Gems of Collection in Nanjing Museum, Shanghai, 1997, no. 29, and again in the Chinese University of Hong Kong exhibition, Qing Imperial Porcelain, 1995, no. 78, where it is noted that these yellow ground vases were specially made to commemorate Emperor Qianlong's sixtieth birthday. A pair of vases from the collection of Mr. and Mrs. Albert Nipon of Gladwyne, Pennsylvania, sold at Sotheby's New York, 7 December 1983, lot 382. Another vase is illustrated in Sekai Toji Zenshu, vol. 12, pl 63, Toki Zenshu, Heibonsha Series, no. 16, fig. 9; Sotheby's Hong Kong, Twenty Years, 1993, no. 365, sold Sotheby's Hong Kong 19 May 1982, lot 323 and again in these Rooms, 3 November 1998, lot 975, as well as 2 November 1999, lot 599.
No other blue and white vase of this exact decoration appears to have been published. However, a smaller blue and white vase (36 cm.) of this form, painted with matching decoration apart from the central motif where the dragons are replaced with a pair of fish below a canopy, was included in a sale held at Sotheby's London, 8 June 1993, lot 69.
A small number of yellow-ground underglaze-blue decorated 'dragon' hexagonal vases of this pattern are known. The first in the Nanjing Museum, is included in Imperial Kiln Porcelain of Qing Dynasty: Gems of Collection in Nanjing Museum, Shanghai, 1997, no. 29, and again in the Chinese University of Hong Kong exhibition, Qing Imperial Porcelain, 1995, no. 78, where it is noted that these yellow ground vases were specially made to commemorate Emperor Qianlong's sixtieth birthday. A pair of vases from the collection of Mr. and Mrs. Albert Nipon of Gladwyne, Pennsylvania, sold at Sotheby's New York, 7 December 1983, lot 382. Another vase is illustrated in Sekai Toji Zenshu, vol. 12, pl 63, Toki Zenshu, Heibonsha Series, no. 16, fig. 9; Sotheby's Hong Kong, Twenty Years, 1993, no. 365, sold Sotheby's Hong Kong 19 May 1982, lot 323 and again in these Rooms, 3 November 1998, lot 975, as well as 2 November 1999, lot 599.