QIANLONG SIX-CHARACTER SEAL MARKS IN UNDERGLAZE BLUE AND OF THE PERIOD (1736-1795)

Each vase is elegantly shaped with smoothly sloping shoulders and elongated neck. The globular body is finely decorated with flowering branches, all between a band of upright petals and ruyi key frets to the shoulder. The underglaze blue decoration of the present pair is inspired by the Yongle and Xuande prototypes. According to Qing court archives, on the 25th day of the 6th month of Qianlong 3rd year (1738), a ‘Xuande blue and white garlic-mouth vase’ was delivered to Tang Ying, the superintendent in Jingdezhen, possibly as a commission to make imitation copies. The present pair is possibly one of such vases.

Vases of this shape and design were first seen in the Yongzheng reign. Compare to a Yongzheng example in the National Museum of China, Beijing, which serves as a model for later periods.

Compare to a very similar Qianlong vase from the National Palace Museum, Taipei, illustrated in Blue and White Ware of the Ch’ing Dynasty, vol. 2, Hong Kong, 1968, pl.5 (fig. 1); one from the Nanjing Museum, recorded in Treasures in the Royalty – The Official Kiln Porcelain of the Chinese Qing Dynasty, Shanghai, 2003, p.211; one from the Wangxinglou Collection, sold at Christie’s Hong Kong, 30 May 2022, lot 2718; and one from the Tianminlou Collection, sold at Sotheby’s Hong Kong, 3 April 2019, lot 14.