YONGZHENG PERIOD, DATED 1731

The combination of celadon green with underglaze cobalt blue and underglaze copper red is relatively rare, no doubt because it was so difficult to fire successfully. With the coming of the Kangxi reign came renewed imperial interest in porcelain and a demand for high quality and variety. In the early years of the reign the potters revived the combination of underglaze blue and underglaze copper red on single pieces, and with the re-establishment of the imperial kiln complex court demand for innovation resulted in molded and carved surface decoration and the use of areas of celadon green being added to this already challenging palette. The current vase is a rare example from the Yongzheng period.

The favored decorative theme in this technique is landscape with trees, mountains, water and molded and carved celadon-green rocks. An example of this technique from the Kangxi period can be found on a trumpet-mouth vase in the Seikado Bunko, Tokyo, illustrated in Sekai toji zenshu, Tokyo, 1983, vol. 15, Qing, p. 146, no. 138.