Vases of this form, produced in five different colours, were made for the Imperial altars where the emperor personally made sacrifices. The present deep blue example was made for Tiantan, The Altar of Heaven.

Compare with a yellow example of this rare form made for the Diqitan, The Altar of Earth, illustrated in The National Palace Museum Special Exhibition of Qing Monochromes, 1981, Taipei, pl. 28; another yellow-glazed vase from the Nanjing Museum was included in The Art Gallery, the Chinese University of Hong Kong joint exhibition, Qing Imperial Porcelain of the Kangxi, Yongzheng and Qianlong Reigns, Hong Kong, 1995, fig. 65; and to two examples in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, a pale blue jar made for the Xiyuetan, The Altar of the Moon, and a red example made for the Chaoritan, The Altar of the Sun, both illustrated by R. Kerr (editor), Chinese Art and Design, Victoria and Albert Museum, 1991, pl. 88.

A blue-glazed Jiaqing-marked example in the Weishaupt Collection is illustrated by Avitabile, From the Dragon's Treasure, London, 1987, fig. 3, where the author notes that vessels of this form were first produced in 1749.