Qing dynasty underglaze-red ceramics decorated with the use of fine 'pencil-line' drawings are very rare. This decorative technique can be found as early as the Kangxi period, as seen on a large fish jar, a floral-decorated waterpot and a dragon bowl, all in the Beijing Palace Museum collection, illustrated in Blue and White Porcelain with Underglaze Red (III), The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum, Hong Kong, 2000, nos. 167, 168 and 169 respectively. It was also adopted in the Yongzheng reign, see ibid., no. 170, a pear-shaped vase and no. 171, a meiping.

Compare four Qianlong-marked copper-red vessels decorated in this carefully drawn pencil decoration, the first a moonflask from the C. P. Lin collection, included in the exhibition, Elegant Form and Harmonious Decoration, Percival David Foundation, 1992, and illustrated in the Catalogue, p. 149, no. 171. The second example, a monk's cap ewer in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, illustrated in Sekai Toji Zenshu, Shogakukan series, vol. 15, 1983, p. 82, fig. 90; the third, a baluster vase included in the exhibition, K'ang-hsi, Yung-cheng and Ch'ien-lung Porcelain Ware From the Ch'ing Dynasty in the National Palace Museum, Taiwan, 1986, and illustrated in the Catalogue, no. 73; and a yuhuchunping sold at Christie's Hong Kong, 27 May 2009, lot 1831.