It is very rare to find a cloisonne enamel vases decorated with multiple shou characters written in varied styles. This pattern known as bai shou, or 'hundred long life', also appear as decoration on ceramics. Compare two very closely related ceramic examples, an underglaze-blue vase in the National Palace Museum, Taibei, illustrated in Orientations, October 1995, p. 81; and the same pattern appear on a moulded celadon-glazed vase in the Baur Collection, illustrated by J. Ayers, Catalogue, vol. II, A385, no. 295, and illustrated again in Sekai Toji Zenshu, vol. 15, Qing, no. 268.

The present vase may have been a special commission; and as suggested by the abundant longevity characters, it was most probably a birthday gift.

(US$10,000-15,000)