The turquoise glaze, which owes its colour to copper oxide in an alkaline glaze mix, appears intermittently in ceramics from as early as the Yuan period. One of the most well-known examples from the Ming period is the large stoneware wine jar, guan, dated to the 15th century, illustrated by R. E. Scott, Imperial Taste: Chinese Ceramics from the Percival David Foundation, 1989, no. 36.

The present example is highly unusual in that it is rendered with an incised design. Compare with undecorated turquoise-glazed vases, each with a similar glaze covered Qianlong seal mark, the first a vase with a compressed globular body from the Edward T. Chow Collection, illustrated in Chinese Porcelain: The S. C. Ko Tianminlou Collection, Hong Kong Museum of Art, 1987, Part I, no. 153; and the other of oviform shape from the Frederick J. and Antoinette H. van Slyke, and Robert Chang collections, sold in these Rooms, 31 October 2000, lot 822. All the cited Qing examples, including the present vase, and the Ming guan all share similar characteristics in the network of fine crackles in the glaze and the formation of thick welts just above the bases.