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

This elegant bottle vase is painted with three decorative medallions: two depict a flowering prunus branch on a bamboo-leaf lattice ground and the third is decorated with a pair of birds wreathed in a bough studded with red berries. The prototype for this design can be found on small doucai cups made during the Chenghua period (1465-1487), where the exterior is decorated with four medallions, two of birds on branches and two of bamboo and prunus. A pair of such Chenghua-period cups is in the collection of the National Palace Museum, Taipei (acc. nos. 故瓷005251N000000000 and 故瓷005252N000000000) and the former cup is illustrated in Catalogue of the Special Exhibition of Ch'eng-Hua Porcelain Ware, 1465-1487, Taipei, 2003, pl. 169. A doucai Chenghua-marked wine cup of the same design formerly in the collection of Sir Harry and Lady Garner, but dated to the Yongzheng period (1723-1735), was illustrated in The Oriental Ceramic Society, Catalogue of an Exhibition of the Ceramic Art of China, London, 1971, no. 214.