YONGZHENG SIX-CHARACTER MARK IN UNDERGLAZE BLUE WITHIN A DOUBLE CIRCLE AND OF THE PERIOD (1723-1735)

Fruit and flowers served as inspiration to the Qing-dynasty potters, with the natural shapes translated into both porcelain shapes and other decorations laden with hidden meanings. A well-known emblem of fertility and numerous progeny, the pomegranate is also a pun on the character zi, which means "seed" or "offspring." Introduced to China in the Tang dynasty, the pomegranate appears as a decorative motif as prolifically as the peach, the emblem of longevity, but is perhaps better suited in proportion and shape to serve as a small vase such as the present rare example.

This attractive and easy-to-handle form appears to have been produced with a variety of well-applied monochrome glazes in the Yongzheng reign. A similar vase covered with a crackled celadon glaze, with a Yongzheng mark, is in the National Palace Museum, Taipei, and is illustrated in Catalog of the Special Exhibition of K'ang-Hsi, Yung-Cheng and Ch'ien-Lung Porcelain Ware from the Ch'ing Dynasty in the National Palace Museum, 1986, p. 93, no. 62. (Fig. 1) A teadust-glazed example with a Yongzheng mark, in the Musée Guimet, Paris, is illustrated in Oriental Ceramics, The World's Great Collections, Vol. 7, Tokyo, 1981, no. 47 and a Yongzheng-marked example covered in a flambé glaze, in the National Museum of China, Beijing, is illustrated in Zhongguo guojia bowuguan guancang wenwu yanjiu congshu - ciqi juan - Qing dai, Shanghai, 2007, p. 95, no. 61.