THE PROPERTY OF A LADY
A FINE AND VERY RARE PAIR OF UNDERGLAZE-BLUE AND PINK-ENAMELLED MINIATURE MOONFLASKS

Details
A FINE AND VERY RARE PAIR OF UNDERGLAZE-BLUE AND PINK-ENAMELLED MINIATURE MOONFLASKS
QIANLONG SEAL MARKS AND OF THE PERIOD

Each of flattened spherical shape with a pair of elephant-head handles flanking the waisted neck, each side finely painted and enamelled with leafy stems issuing ruby blooms with stippled detail, all between overlapping lotus petals around the foot and a band of ruyi-heads below the lipped rim (minor glaze chip on one handle)
4 7/8in. (12.4cm.) high, stands, boxes (2)
Literature

Exhibited

Lot Essay

Underglaze-blue and pink enamelled wares are rare and no other examples of this shape or decoration appear to have been published.

Cf. a pair of Qianlong-marked elephant-head ewers decorated with pink lotus issuing from an underglaze-blue meander around the body and neck, from the collections of Nathan Bentz and Frederick and Antoinette Van Slyke sold in New York, 31 May 1989, lot 203. Two Qianlong-marked vases with pink flower-heads on underglaze-blue stems are illustrated in the Tokyo National Museum Catalogue, 1965, no. 646 and in the Illustrated Catalogue of Ch'ing Dynasty Porcelain in the National Palace Museum, pl. 21. Compare also the moonflask combining underglaze-blue and pink enamels depicting phoenixes illustrated in Sekai Toji Zenshu, vol.15, pls.92 and 93, from the Matsuoka Museum of Art, Tokyo

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