Lot Essay
Vases of this type are usually found as part of an altar garniture, with matching incense burner and candlesticks, all invariably decorated with the bajixiang and lotus scrolls. Although the decoration may have been the same, the background color of these garnitures varied. A ruby-ground five-piece garniture in the National Palace Museum, is illustrated in Special Exhibition of Incense Burners and Perfumers Throughout the Dynasties, Taipei, 1994, no. 105. A pair of similar yellow-ground vases of smaller size (23.5 cm.) was sold at Christie's London, 14 May 2013, lot 262, and another yellow-ground example of larger size (37.2 cm.) was sold at Christie's Hong Kong, 1 November 2004, lot 1147. A similar pair (28.6 cm.) from the Yokogawa collection is included in the Illustrated Catalogues of Tokyo National Museum: Chinese Ceramics, Tokyo, 1965, p. 155, no. 653.