Similar examples are illustrated in the Tsui Museum of Art, Catalogue, no. 78, The S.C. Ko Tianminlou Collection, Catalogue, vol. I, col. pl. 59 and by Liu Liang-yu in Ch'ing Official and Popular Wares, vol. 5, p. 157; Selected Chinese Ceramics from Han to Qing, p. 336, col. pl. 149; The Wonders of the Potter's Palette, p. 109, fig. 64; Ming and Qing Ceramics and Works of Art from the Osaka Museum, p. 47, fig. 218; and Sekai Toji Zenshu, vol. 15, p. 152, pl. 161, from the British Museum.
For the Ming prototype of this exact design, see lot 662 in this sale and lot 70 in the Imperial sale. It is noteworthy that Qing revivals of the early Ming ewers only copied this design. It appears that no copies of ewers with continuous floral meander, ruyi panels or birds on branches were produced. The size was not always faithfully copied, the 18th Century versions being smaller in some cases. Cf. Mary Ann Rogers, 'Chinese Ceramics in the Matsuoka Museum of Art, Part II', Orientations, January 1986, p.29, fig. 17 for three comparable ewers, including an early Ming original, a Qianlong and a Daoguang copy. The author suggests the latest was copied via the Qianlong version explaining the increasingly mechanical, flat results. The colour and glaze also being harder and brighter in the later ewers, if clearer.
(US$9,000-13,000)