A BLUE AND WHITE VASE, HU SEAL MARK AND PERIOD OF QIANLONG

the ovoid body rising from a splayed foot to a waisted neck, set on the shoulder with a pair of animal mask handles suspending mock rings, the body painted with a composite floral scroll between an undulating lotus scroll and a band of tumultuous waves, all divided by raised double horizontal fillets, the shoulder encircled by overlapping plantain lappets, the rim and foot bordered by a band of waves and pendent lappets respectively, inscribed to the base with a six-character seal mark
25 cm, 9 7/8 in.

Provenance:
This vase belongs to a distinct group of blue and white wares from the Qianlong period with motifs adapted from early 15th century porcelain on forms inspired by bronze prototypes. Vases of this form were first produced at the imperial kilns in Jingdezhen during the Yongzheng reign (r. 1723-1735), but their popularity peaked in the Qianlong period.

Qianlong mark and period vases of this form and design are held in important museums and private collections worldwide; a vase in the National Palace Museum, Taipei, is illustrated in Porcelain of the National Palace Museum. Blue and White Ware of the Ch'ing Dynasty, Hong Kong, 1968, pl. 2; another in the Nanjing Museum, is published in The Official Kiln Porcelain of the Chinese Qing Dynasty, Shanghai, 2003, pl. 235; a third was sold in these rooms, 12th/13th May 1976, lot 160; and a further vase was sold in our London rooms, 17th November 1970, lot 108.

Vases of this form continued to be made in the succeeding reigns; see for example a Daoguang mark and period version illustrated in Geng Baochang ed., Ming Qing ciqi jianding [Connoisseurship of Ming and Qing Porcelains], Hong Kong, 1993, pl. 510.