YONGZHENG SIX-CHARACTER SEAL MARK IN UNDERGLAZE BLUE AND OF THE PERIOD (1723-1735)

The present jardinière is one of the finest jardinières and celadon-glazed vessels made during the Yongzheng period, in fact, no other identical jardinière of this design and glaze colour appears to have been published.

Large-sized rectangular jardinières of this type were used for artistically arranged plants at the palaces. A painting by the Qianlong-period court painter Jin Tingbiao shows a similar monochrome rectangular jardinière holding narcissus plants grown among scholar’s rocks; illustrated in The Enchanting Splendor of Vases and Planters: A Special Exhibition of Flower Vessels from Ming and Qing Dynasties, Taipei, 2014, p. 63. For another similar Yongzheng monochrome rectangular jardinière, see a robin’s egg-glazed example in the National Palace Museum, Taipei, illustrated ibid., no. I-16.