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Lot Essay
Previously sold in our New York Rooms, 24 March 2004, lot 238.
No other vase of this pattern appears to have been published. The combination of size and decoration is very rare. A smaller (27cm.) ruby-ground famille rose ovoid vase with Qianlong mark, also with pendent ruyi-collar rim, is illustrated by J. Ayers, The Baur Collection - Chinese Ceramics, vol. 4, Geneva, 1974, no. A 632. Like the present vase the body is decorated with lotus scroll between lappet and ruyi borders and is raised on a slightly spreading foot. A somewhat smaller (36.5cm.) blue and white vase in the National Palace Museum, Taipei, which is more similar in form to the present vase, and also has a similar pendent ruyi rim, but is decorated with dragons and lingzhi, is illustrated in Blue-and-White Ware of the Ch'ing Dynasty, Book II, Hong Kong, 1968, pl. 10.
Cf. also and a large Qianlong marked vase with similar relief decoration in the Zande Lou Collection, illustrated in the exhibition catalogue Qing Imperial Monochromes: The Zande Lou Collection, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2005, pp. 120-121, no. 43.
For the Chinese potters of the Qianlong period, the innovation and challenge of a pendent, free-standing band of ruyi to replace the band of painted ruyi heads that often encircled mouth rims, would only seem natural, but may have been difficult to achieve successfully. Such a ruyi band painted in famille rose enamels can be seen on an equally large vase of similar shape, decorated with bats suspending precious objects amidst foliate scroll and with a pair of animal mask handles, and with Qianlong mark, sold at Sotheby's Hong Kong, 29 April 2000, lot 644.
No other vase of this pattern appears to have been published. The combination of size and decoration is very rare. A smaller (27cm.) ruby-ground famille rose ovoid vase with Qianlong mark, also with pendent ruyi-collar rim, is illustrated by J. Ayers, The Baur Collection - Chinese Ceramics, vol. 4, Geneva, 1974, no. A 632. Like the present vase the body is decorated with lotus scroll between lappet and ruyi borders and is raised on a slightly spreading foot. A somewhat smaller (36.5cm.) blue and white vase in the National Palace Museum, Taipei, which is more similar in form to the present vase, and also has a similar pendent ruyi rim, but is decorated with dragons and lingzhi, is illustrated in Blue-and-White Ware of the Ch'ing Dynasty, Book II, Hong Kong, 1968, pl. 10.
Cf. also and a large Qianlong marked vase with similar relief decoration in the Zande Lou Collection, illustrated in the exhibition catalogue Qing Imperial Monochromes: The Zande Lou Collection, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2005, pp. 120-121, no. 43.
For the Chinese potters of the Qianlong period, the innovation and challenge of a pendent, free-standing band of ruyi to replace the band of painted ruyi heads that often encircled mouth rims, would only seem natural, but may have been difficult to achieve successfully. Such a ruyi band painted in famille rose enamels can be seen on an equally large vase of similar shape, decorated with bats suspending precious objects amidst foliate scroll and with a pair of animal mask handles, and with Qianlong mark, sold at Sotheby's Hong Kong, 29 April 2000, lot 644.