An imposing Chinese Ming-style underglaze-blue Hu vase

Of archaic bronze ovoid form, the pear-shaped body rising from the slightly spreading foot to the waisted neck with slightly everted rim, the neck flanked by a pair of archaistic scroll handles, the body painted with a continuous meandering foliate scroll in vibrant shades of underglaze-blue bearing lotus blossoms beneath a ruyi-head border, the neck with a band of shou characters against a wan diaper pattern ground, the base with an apocryphal square seal mark of Qianlong in underglaze blue. Period: 19th century. Height: 45 cm.

This large form was first transposed from bronze into porcelain during the Yongzheng and Qianlong period, the workshops were encouraged to look to archaic forms and designs for inspiration, The handles are inspired by the animal handles of the Zhou period but have been abstracted to a silhouette of the original. A closely related vase of the Qianlong period in the Shanghai Museum, Shanghai, is illustrated in Selected Ceramics from the Collection of Mr and Mrs J.M. Hu, Shanghai, 1989, pl. 62; another Qianlong example is included in Geng Baochang, Ming Qing ciqi jianding [Appraisal of Ming and Qing porcelain], Hong Kong, 1993, pl. 455.