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

The pear-shaped body is superbly potted, with an elegantly curved spout joined to the neck by a cloud-shaped strut, and a curved handle on the opposite side. The body is painted on each side with a large quatrefoil cartouche, one enclosing a fruiting peach spray and the other a fruiting loquat spray, each flanked by flower sprays.

Ewers of this elegant form were first made in early Ming dynasty, and are known with a variety of decorative schemes, such as floral scrolls, fruiting branches, and ‘three friends of winter’. Compare to a Yongle prototype of this form and almost identical decoration, illustrated in Imperial Hongwu and Yongle Porcelain, Taipei, 1996, no.59.

Ewers modelled after the Ming prototype became prevalent during the Qianlong period, see one in the Nanjing Museum, illustrated in The Official Kiln Porcelain of the Chinese Qing Dynasty, Shanghai, 2003, p.214; one in the Palace Museum, Taipei, decorated with lychee and peach, collection number: Zhongci 000459N; and one in the Topkapi Saray Museum, Istanbul, illustrated in Chinese Ceramics in the Topkapi Saray Museum, Istanbul, London, 1986, vol. III, pl. 2565.

Compare also a Qianlong example from the Meiyintang collection, sold at Sotheby’s Hong Kong, 3 April 2012, lot 28.