18TH-EARLY 19TH CENTURY

The shape of this bottle-vase is similar to iron-red-decorated porcelain examples made during the Qianlong period as court gifts to Tibetan monks. The Emperor Qianlong is portrayed with one of these porcelain vases on a table next to him in a painting by Giuseppe Castiglione illustrated by E.S. Rawski and J. Rawson (eds.) in China: The Three Emperors, London, 2005, p. 282, no. 194. Another porcelain example in the collection of the Nanjing Museum is illustrated by Xu Huping in Treasures in the Royalty: The Official Kiln Porcelain of the Chinese Qing Dynasty, Shanghai, 2003, p. 225, and a pair in the collection of the National Palace Museum, Taiwan, is illustrated in Monarchy and Its Buddhist Way: Tibetan-Buddhist Ritual Implements in the National Palace Museum, Taipei, 1999, p. 184, no. 91.
Cloisonné enamel examples of this type of 'pure water' bottle-vase appear to be rare, however, a similar ganlu ping was sold at Christie's Paris, 8 June 2010, lot 242.