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Lot Essay
A smaller vase of this form with similar deep blue glaze on shoulder, neck and foot and with the same gilded decoration from the Bruce collection, is decorated around the central panel with dragons above waves in place of the current vase's fruiting sprays (see Soame Jenyns, Later Chinese Porcelain - The Ch'ing Dynasty (1644-1912), Faber and Faber, London, 1951, plate CIX, no. 1). Another Qianlong vase of this form entirely covered in deep blue glaze embellished with gold painted designs is in the Palace Museum, Beijing (see The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum - Monochrome Porcelain, Commercial Press, Hong Kong, 1999, p. 82, no. 75).
This very effective use of deep blue and gold combined with white panels decorated in delicate famille rose enamels, was popular in the Qianlong reign, especially for vases. An octagonal lantern-shaped vase in the National Palace Museum, Taipei, has white reserved panels on each of the four wider sides, which are decorated with delicate flowering sprays (illustrated by Liu Liang-yu, A Survey of Chinese Ceramics - 5 - Ch'ing Official and Popular Wares, Aries Gemini Publishing Ltd., Taipei, 1991, p. 166). Two Qianlong lantern-shaped vases in the collection of the Palace Museum, Beijing also make use of this colour scheme. One has an encircling design of children at play (illustrated in The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum - Porcelains with Cloisonne Enamel Decoration and Famille Rose Decoration, Commercial Press, Hong Kong, 1999, p. 150, no. 132), while the other has four reserved panels decorated with sprays of auspicious fruit (illustrated ibid., p. 151, no. 133). Several other vase forms with this scheme are also in the Palace Museum collection and these are illustrated ibid., pp. 147-9, nos. 129-131.
This very effective use of deep blue and gold combined with white panels decorated in delicate famille rose enamels, was popular in the Qianlong reign, especially for vases. An octagonal lantern-shaped vase in the National Palace Museum, Taipei, has white reserved panels on each of the four wider sides, which are decorated with delicate flowering sprays (illustrated by Liu Liang-yu, A Survey of Chinese Ceramics - 5 - Ch'ing Official and Popular Wares, Aries Gemini Publishing Ltd., Taipei, 1991, p. 166). Two Qianlong lantern-shaped vases in the collection of the Palace Museum, Beijing also make use of this colour scheme. One has an encircling design of children at play (illustrated in The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum - Porcelains with Cloisonne Enamel Decoration and Famille Rose Decoration, Commercial Press, Hong Kong, 1999, p. 150, no. 132), while the other has four reserved panels decorated with sprays of auspicious fruit (illustrated ibid., p. 151, no. 133). Several other vase forms with this scheme are also in the Palace Museum collection and these are illustrated ibid., pp. 147-9, nos. 129-131.