Home
Porcelain & Works of Art
The Centenary Exhibition
Blue & White
Imperial

18 – SMBM3

Chinese imperial porcelain blue and white bottle vase, suantou kou ping, with pear-shaped body, everted lipped foot, garlic mouth and upright rim, painted on the body with twelve seasonal blooms borne on a continuous scrolling branch with characteristic leaves including peony, chrysanthemum, camellia, hibiscus and lotus, beneath a ruyi-head band and a blue washed prunus flower head band at the ribbed shoulder, the neck with lappets of branches and leaves beneath the garlic mouth painted with flowerheads and their characteristic leaves beneath a keyfret band at the upright rim. The foot painted with a crested wave and foam band beneath blue ground lappets, painted overall in the classic Ming style with heaped and piled effect.

The base with a six-character mark of Yongzheng within a double ring in underglaze blue and of the period, 1723-1735.

11 inches, 28 cm high.

Purchased by Richard Marchant circa 1965.
Included by P. Marchant in a lecture given to the Oriental Ceramic Society of Hong Kong, 23rd November 1976, titled Some Interesting Pieces of Marked Ch’ing Porcelain, Bulletin of the Oriental Ceramic Society of Hong Kong, no. 3, 1977-1978, no. 37, pp. 52/3, where the author notes, “Looking first at the potting one can notice small details which illustrate just how much care has been taken in the construction of the piece, notice the beautifully turned-up white lip at the mouth and the elegant ridge around the neck, as well as the splayed foot rim accentuated at the very bottom giving an almost floating effect. The painting itself is well balanced and spaced on the piece, giving an impression of planned decoration and suggesting that, on this and no doubt on many other such pieces, a draft would have been made before the piece was painted. Note also the beautiful proportions of the parts left white and the parts that are blue”.
Only two other identical vases appears recorded, one originally from the collection of President Herbert Hoover (president from 1929 to 1933) and sold by Chait Gallery, New York in It was illustrated in Arts of Asia and included by Thomas Fok in Encompassing Precious Beauty: The Songzhutang Collection of Imperial Chinese Ceramics, Hong Kong, 2016, no. 40.
A similar example with leaves and a keyfret band at the shoulder was underbid by Marchant and included by Sotheby’s Hong Kong in their auction of Important Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art, 1st & 2nd November 1994, lot 145, where it notes, “It is extremely rare to find a vase of this form with the Yongzheng reign mark or painted with a flower scroll and no other vase of exactly this design appears to be published”.
Two other Yongzheng mark and period blue and white vases of this form and size appears to be recorded, painted with clusters of peony, peach, pomegranate and lilies each above lingzhi fungus. One sold by Sotheby’s Hong Kong in their auction of Important Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art, 28th & 29th November 1978, lot 234, 198, colour illustration p. 201.
Flowers in bloom are considered to be A vase, ping, filled with flowers or painted with flowers forms the rebus cheng xiang xian rui, “may everything be auspicious”. Flowers of the twelve months are usually represented as follows: January, prunus or plum blossom; February, peach blossom; March, tree peony; April, cherry blossom; May, magnolia; June, pomegranate blossom; July, lotus; August, quince blossom; September, mallow; October, chrysanthemum; November, gardenia and December, poppy.