The ostentatious design of the present lot appears to be unique, although it is typical of the colourful and unusual decoration often found on Qianlong-period wares.

Examples of conjoined vases can be found in various media - ceramics, cloisonne enamel and jade among others. In cloisonne, a closely related piece would be the triple bottle vase, intersected at the lower halves of the three vessels, with each vase decorated with a different design, included in the Phoenix Art Museum exhibition, Chinese Cloisonne: The Clague Collection, 1980, pl. 50. Compare also the twin-vase decorated with a tied-brocade design, from the Qing Court collection, Beijing, illustrated in Metal-bodied Enamel Ware, The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum, Hong Kong, 2002, pl. 98; another twin-vase illustrated by H. Brinker and A. Lutz, Chinese Cloisonne: The Pierre Uldry Collection, Zurich, 1985, pl. 243; and a double flattened vase illustrated ibid., pl. 319.

The two types of enamelled motifs found on the present vase appear on individual 18th-century cloisonne double-gourd vases from the Pierre Uldry Collection, ibid., pl. 246 for one with Shou characters and bats, and pl. 294, with gourds suspended from vines.