YONGZHENG PERIOD (1723-1735)

During the eighteenth century, moulded decoration of the Eight Daoist Trigrams, Bagua, is more commonly found on guan and ge-type cong-form vases, which were inspired by archaic jades. However, the current moon flask form is based on Middle Eastern prototypes which began to appear in the repertoire of Chinese ceramic forms during the early Ming dynasty (1368-1644). It is interesting to note that although the body of the moon flask is usually circular, this particular example is octagonal, echoing the Eight Trigram decoration. The crackled glaze on the current vase is in imitation of the 'iron-wire and golden thread' glaze on Song dynasty Ge wares. Ge-type wares were produced as early as the Yongle period (1403-1424), with the technique reaching perfection during the Yongzheng (1723-1735) and Qianlong (1736-1795) reigns.

For an example of a cong-form vase with moulded Bagua decoration dating to the Qianlong period (1736-1795), see Peter Y. K. Lam, Porcelain Vases of the Imperial Qing: The Huaihaitang Collection, Hong Kong, 2007, pp. 172-173, no. 45. A Yongzheng example was sold at Christie's Hong Kong, 3 December 2008, lot 2562.