QIANLONG SIX-CHARACTER SEAL MARK IN UNDERGLAZE BLUE AND OF THE PERIOD (1736-1795)

The form of these large Qianlong flasks is based on Ming-dynasty fifteenth-century prototypes, which had a convex side that was decorated and a flat unglazed back with a countersunk medallion in the centre. For a Yongle (1403-24) example see the flask in the Freer Gallery of Art, illustrated in Oriental Ceramics, The World’s Great Collections, Tokyo, vol. 9, 1981, no. 94. These fifteenth century blue and white porcelain flasks were themselves based on silver-inlaid brass prototypes.

For other similar Qianlong blue and white moonflasks, see an example in the National Palace Museum, Taipei, illustrated in Good Fortune, Long Life, Health and Peace: A Special Exhibition of Porcelain with Auspicious Designs, Taipei, 1995, no. 11; one in the Nanjing Museum illustrated in Qing Imperial Porcelain of the Kangxi, Yongzheng and Qianlong Reigns, Hong Kong, 1995, p. 295; one illustrated in Sekai Toji Zenshu, vol. 15, Tokyo, 1983, no. 151; two included in Chinese Ceramics in The Idemitsu Collection, Japan, 1987, figs. 949 and 950; a pair sold at Bonham’s Hong Kong, 30 May 2017, lot 120; one from the Baofang Pavilion Collection, sold at Christie’s Hong Kong, 29 May 2019, lot 2810; and one sold at Christie’s Hong Kong, 27 November 2019, lot 3020.