YONGZHENG PERIOD (1723-1735)

The vase is elegantly potted with a gently flattened spherical body surmounted by a cylindrical neck flanked by two arched ruyi scroll handles. Both sides are delicately painted in cobalt blue with a long-tailed bird perched on leafy branches bearing persimmons and buds, all between bands of trefoil motifs encircling the shoulder and the foot. The neck is further decorated with bamboo sprays.

A number of Yongzheng moonflasks are recorded but they are generally of larger proportions. Compare with a Yongzheng blue and white ‘persimmon’ moonflask, housed in the National Palace Museum, Taipei, collection number: guci 016953(fig. 1); and one decorated with prunus and magpies, included in the Palace Museum and illustrated in The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum, Blue and White Porcelain with Underglazed Red (III), Hong Kong, 2010, no.97.