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Lot Essay
The motifs on the present vase are exceptionally well rendered with fine delineation and different tonalities of gold creating sharp contrast with the sapphire-blue ground. The combination of butterflies and gourds form the auspicious rebus guadie mianmian, 'May you have ceaseless generatinos of descendants'.
A Qianlong-marked double-gourd shape vase bearing very similar design of gold-enamelled butterflies and gourds on a blue ground was displayed in the Min Chiu Society exhibition Splendour of the Qing Dynasty, Hong Kong, 1992, cat. no. 228. Compare also to a Jiaqing-marked blue-ground baluster vase gilt-decorated with lotus and dragons, sold at Sotheby's Hong Kong, 8 April 2007, lot 510.
A Qianlong-marked double-gourd shape vase bearing very similar design of gold-enamelled butterflies and gourds on a blue ground was displayed in the Min Chiu Society exhibition Splendour of the Qing Dynasty, Hong Kong, 1992, cat. no. 228. Compare also to a Jiaqing-marked blue-ground baluster vase gilt-decorated with lotus and dragons, sold at Sotheby's Hong Kong, 8 April 2007, lot 510.