Dragon vases of this kind appear with both underglaze cobalt-blue and copper-red painting. The blue and white ones seem to be slightly less rare than the red ones, reflecting the age-old problem for the Jingdezhen potter of being able to effectively control the ground copper oxide in the kiln. However, blue and white examples of this vase bearing a Kangxi mark are particularly rare, the mark appearing more often on the copper-red ones; blue ones are often unmarked

A similar blue and white vase, also with a Kangxi mark, is illustrated in Kangxi, Yongzheng, Qianlong, Qing Porcelain from the Palace Museum Collection, Hong Kong, 1989, no. 6. Another was included in An Exhibition of Important Chinese Ceramics from the Robert Chang Collection, Christie's, London, June 2-14, 1993, Catalogue, no. 77
The equivalent vase painted in copper-red is in the Baur Collection, illustrated by Ayers, Catalogue, vol. IV, Geneva, 1974, pl. 527. For other examples of red dragon vases, see the O.C.S. Exhibition Catalogue, Arts of the Ch'ing Dynasty, 1964, no. 108, pl. 43, from the Sir Harry and Lady Garner Collection; the Percival David Foundation, Catalogue, Section 3, 1976. no. B663; and S. W. Bushell, Oriental Ceramic Art, New York, 1980 (republished from an 1896 edition), fig. 225, from the Walters Art Gallery, Baltimore