QIANLONG PERIOD (1736-1795)

The shape of the current moonflask is based on early Ming dynasty prototypes. For two fifteenth-century examples see the 'garlic-headed' moonflasks in the collection of the National Palace Museum, Taipei, illustrated in Blue-and-White Ware of the Ming Dynasty, Book II, Part 1, Hong Kong, 1963, pp. 38-41, pls. 9-10c. See, also, an eighteenth-century moonflask of the same shape, with pomegranates painted on one side and lychees on the other, sold at Christie's New York, 19 September 2007, lot 289.