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Lot Essay
The unusual form of the present vase was inspired by archaic bronze vessels such as those from the Western Zhou period with flanges and upright lappets, like the example in the Shaanxi Provincial Museum, illustrated in Zhongguo Meishu Quanji, Gongyi meishu bian, vol. 4, pl. 133.
The present vase appears to be unique with no other published examples, though there are known cloisonné enamel gu vases featuring taotie and kui dragons on the main bands of decoration. Compare to three examples in the Qing Court Collection, illustrated in Compendium of Collections in the Palace Museum - Enamels (2) - Cloisonne in the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911), Beijing, 2011, pls. 130-132. However the mouth rims of these examples are more flared and the flanges are more flamboyant than those on the current vase or indeed the Western Zhou prototypes.
Compare to a baluster vase with very closely related decorative borders included in the sale at Christie's London, 14 May 2013, lot 147. Despite the fact that the latter appears to be based on a Middle-Eastern prototype whilst the present vase is based on a Chinese archaic bronze form, the unusual design of the white-ground foliate scroll bands and very similar rendering of the upright lappets surrounding the neck as well as the nearly identical incised reign mark all suggest that these two vases would have been produced in the same workshop at around the same time.
The present design of a main band of floral scrolls below large lappets is also common on other contemporaneous works of art rendered in other media such as glass. Compare to a Qianlong-marked blue-overlay white glass bottle vase in the Andrew K.F. Lee Collection, illustrated in Elegance and Radiance, Grandeur in Qing Glass, the Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2000, pl. 118.
The present vase appears to be unique with no other published examples, though there are known cloisonné enamel gu vases featuring taotie and kui dragons on the main bands of decoration. Compare to three examples in the Qing Court Collection, illustrated in Compendium of Collections in the Palace Museum - Enamels (2) - Cloisonne in the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911), Beijing, 2011, pls. 130-132. However the mouth rims of these examples are more flared and the flanges are more flamboyant than those on the current vase or indeed the Western Zhou prototypes.
Compare to a baluster vase with very closely related decorative borders included in the sale at Christie's London, 14 May 2013, lot 147. Despite the fact that the latter appears to be based on a Middle-Eastern prototype whilst the present vase is based on a Chinese archaic bronze form, the unusual design of the white-ground foliate scroll bands and very similar rendering of the upright lappets surrounding the neck as well as the nearly identical incised reign mark all suggest that these two vases would have been produced in the same workshop at around the same time.
The present design of a main band of floral scrolls below large lappets is also common on other contemporaneous works of art rendered in other media such as glass. Compare to a Qianlong-marked blue-overlay white glass bottle vase in the Andrew K.F. Lee Collection, illustrated in Elegance and Radiance, Grandeur in Qing Glass, the Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2000, pl. 118.