Previously sold in these Rooms, The Imperial Sale, 28 April 1996, lot 51.

It is rare to find Qing dynasty famille rose moonflasks which follow the practical prototype so closely, including convex sides surrounded by a flattened border with loops and slots reserved for leather straps that would have originally carried them. Vases of this group, with a coloured ground on the narrow sides are also rare. A comparable example from the Beijing Palace Museum, is illustrated in Kangxi Yongzheng Qianlong, Hong Kong, 1985, p. 354, fig. 35.