QIANLONG SIX-CHARACTER SEALMARK AND OF THE PERIOD (1735-1796)

Double-gourd vases are also known as dajiping (vase of good fortune), as the double gourd, or bottle gourd, symbolising fertility and good fortune. A similar vase of the same size from the Nanjing Museum was included in the The Exhibition of Qing Imperial Porcelain of the Kangxi, Yongzheng, Qianlong Reigns, Art Museum, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, 1995, no. 69; and one is illustrated in Chinese Porcelain: The S.C. Ko Tianminlou Collection, vol. I, Hong Kong, 1987, pl. 106. Another is illustrated in Qing Imperial Monochromes: The Zande Lou Collection, Shanghai Museum, Beijing Museum, and Art Museum, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2005, p. 118, no. 42. A similar vase with its original small cover from the Jingguantang Collection was sold at Christie's Hong Kong, 3 November 1996, lot 571, and again 28 October 2002, lot 723. See, also, the vase sold at Christie's Hong Kong, 31 May 2010, lot 2012; and another from the Gordon Collection sold at Christie's New York, 24 March 2011, lot 1135.

The shape and colour of the glaze of the present vase and the others like it appear to be a Qing interpretation of earlier Longquan celadon double-gourd vases of Song dynasty date, such as the example illustrated in Mayuyama, Seventy Years, vol. 1, Tokyo, 1976, p. 166, no. 484.