The design and fine quality of painting on this vase are very similar to that found on a larger baluster vase (27½in. high) in the Salting Collection illustrated by Gorer and Blacker, Chinese Porcelain and Hardstones, vol. I, London, 1911, pl. 10. Besides the subject matter both vases have a very similar foliate band encircling the base of the neck and the birds on each are executed in yellow and green. Compare, also, the similar style of painting and subject matter found on another famille noire vase of different shape and size in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, illustrated by Suzanne Valenstein, A Handbook of Chinese Ceramics, New York, 1989 ed., p. 225, no. 218
Previously sold in these rooms, June 3, 1988, lot 294