QIANLONG INCISED SIX-CHARACTER SEAL MARK AND OF THE PERIOD (1736-1795)

The exquisite design of lotus pond on the current vase is possibly inspired by some of the highest quality fahua porcelains with lotus pond motifs from the Ming dynasty. A jar in the Matsuoka Museum of Art, Tokyo, for example, has as its main decorative band a scene of a lotus pond with small egrets against a cobalt-blue ground, illustrated in Sekai toji Zenshu, vol. 14, Ming, Shogakukan, Tokyo, 1976, p. 135, no. 136. These fahua wares with lotus pond decorations were much admired by the Qing dynasty Qianlong Emperor, who ordered similar items to be made for his court. One such example is a magnificent pair of famille rose fahua-style jars sold at Christie's Hong Kong, 30 May 2005, lot 1241. The fahua-style jars each depicts a continuous scene of egrets amidst lotus stalks and leaves, and schematically is closely related to that on the current vase.

This decorative technique in rendering motifs in low relief appeared to have found popularity among monochrome ceramics. Compare with related examples such as a white-glazed pear-shaped vase decorated with lotus blooms, from the Robert Chang Collection and sold at Christie's Hong Kong, 2 November 1999, lot 528; a white-glazed 'pomegranate' vase designed with lotus scrolls in the National Palace Museum, Taipei, and included in Special Exhibition of Monochrome Glazed Porcelain of the Qing Dynasty, Taipei, 1981, Catalogue, no. 64; and a turquoise-enamelled meiping carved with phoenixes amidst lotus scrolls in the Baur Collection, illustrated by John Ayers in Chinese Ceramics in the Baur Collection, vol. 2, Geneva, 1999, pl. 324.