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

Not only the style of painting of this moonflask, but also elements of the design are based upon early 15th century Ming dynasty style. The Eight Buddhist Emblems, bajixiang, became popular on underglaze blue decorated porcelains of the early 15th century, and can, for example, be seen on a shallow bowl, a lidded bowl and a stem cup in the National Palace Museum, illustrated in Catalogue of the Special Exhibition of Selected Hsüan-te Imperial Porcelains of the Ming Dynasty, Taipei, 1998, pp. 142-3, pp. 158-9, and pp. 240-1.

This smaller size moonflask is particularly rare, as others of this design are usually of the larger size seen in the example sold in our Hong Kong rooms on 31 October 2000, lot 887. Other larger flasks of this design include the example illustrated in Sekai Toji Zenshu, Shugakukan Series, vol. 15, Tokyo, 1983, no. 151; a flask in the Idemitsu Museum illustrated in their 15th Anniversary Catalogue, Tokyo, 1981, no. 964; one from the E.T. Chow Collection illustrated by M. Beurdeley and G. Raindre in Qing Porcelain, Thames and Hudson, London, 1987, pl. 154; and the example illustrated by C. Osgood in Blue and White Chinese Porcelain: A Study of Form, New York, 1956, pl. 48. Others have been sold in our New York rooms, 2 June 1989, lot 81, in these rooms, 6 December 1993, lot 118 and in our Hong Kong rooms, 4 November 1996, lot 775.