This vase originally formed part of a collection of materials acquired, by strong family tradition from the Summer Palace, Beijing, in 1860. A gilt tag sold with another lot in the same collection was inscribed 'Palais de Yuen-Ming-Yuen, Octobre 1860", and suggests that the individual who acquired these pieces was Aide de Camp to the leader of the French expeditionary force to China.

While the form of this piece has its origins in the same archaic shape as lot 1547 from the present sale, the current example is more faithful to the original Han dyansty bronze design and jade examples from the Song dynasty. For a Han dynasty inlaid bronze stand of this form, see J. Rawson, Chinese Jades, London, 1995, p. 387, fig. 4. As is the case in the current example, the Han and Song dynasty prototypes had no cover. The minutely cross-hatched ground of the scroll bands is reminiscent of the those on an archaistic cup from the Gerald Godfrey Collection dated to the Song/Ming dynasty, sold at Chrisite's Hong Kong , 30 October 1995, lot 904. Interesting a further Song dyansty example in the St. Louis Art Museum is illustrated by J. Watt, Chinese Jades from the Han to the Ch'ing,p. 156, no. 128 and bears remarkable decorative similarities to the present vase, as does another vase dated to the 13-15th century from the Burrell Collection included in the Oriental Ceramic Society exhibition, Chinese Jade Throughout the Ages, Victoria and Albert Museum, London, 1975, Catalogue no. 319.