This majestic, superbly enamelled pair of vases, with its sumptuous depiction of butterflies and flowers in radiant colours on a rarely used bright pink ground, is archetypical of yangcai porcelains that were produced for a very short period by the imperial kilns at Jingdezhen for the Qianlong Emperor. They are characterized by the phenomenal opulence of their decoration as well as the rich spectrum of their enamels and were amongst the most prized types of porcelain at the Qing court. Yangcai vases were made in very small quantities altogether and of each design, usually only a single piece or a pair was made. It is exceedingly rare to find a matching pair of such vases to have survived and to remain united outside the collection of the National Palace Museum, Taipei, and the present pieces are among the largest specimens preserved.

The term yangcai (‘foreign colours’) was first mentioned in the final year of the Yongzheng reign (1735) by the renowned supervisor of the Jingdezhen imperial workshops Tang Ying (1682-1756). In his work Tao wu xu lue bei ji [Records of narrated summaries of porcelain matters], Tang states ‘Yangcai vessels [are made with the use of] an enamelling technique new in this reign, borrowing from Western painting methods. [Amongst the paintings of] figures, landscapes, flowers and plumage, there are none that are not fine and enthralling'. About the application of the yangcai palette, Tang writes in his other work Tao ye tuce [Illustrated Album of Pottery], written in the 8th year of the Qianlong reign (1743), that ‘round, white-bodied vessels painted in multiple colours and in a style imitating the West are therefore called yangcai. [We] need to select experienced master painters; finely grind and properly mix each type of colour; do trials by painting, colouring and firing slabs of white porcelain; thoroughly understand the properties of the colours and firing, before we can paint from coarse work to fine, and polish the skills from constant practice; a good eye, attentive mind, and exact hand are required to attain excellence’ (Liao Pao Show, Stunning Decorative Porcelains from the Ch’ien-lung Reign, National Palace Museum, Taipei, 2008, p. 14).

Displaying a great variety of butterflies in flight among a multitude of flowers, including peonies, magnolia sprays, peach blossoms, prunus branches, lotus flowers, chrysanthemums, orchids and bamboo, the naturalistic design may have been inspired by European publications, such as the scientific illustrations of the German-born Swiss naturalist and botanical artist Maria Sibylla Merian (1647-1717), who studied plants and animals, and in particular butterflies, and published detailed drawings of them – a work that her daughters continued after her death. See a famous book she first published in 1705 on insects in Surinam, Metamorphosis Insectorum Surinamensium, with meticulous depictions of butterflies among flowers and fruits (fig. 1).

Butterflies appeared occasionally on porcelains already much earlier, at least since the Yongle reign (1403-24) of the previous dynasty, as evidenced by a blue-and-white yuhuchun ping (pear-shaped bottle vase), depicting on each side a butterfly hovering above a day lily, preserved in the National Palace Museum, Taipei (accession no. gu-ci-14975). By the Chenghua reign (1465-87), the design began to be painted in colours, as can be seen on some small doucai jars with butterflies between flower sprays, such as one from the Sir Percival David Foundation of Chinese Art and now in the British Museum, London (accession no. PDF.797). It was not until the Qing dynasty (1644-1911), with the introduction of new palettes and styles brought over from Europe, that the motif began to be rendered in a naturalistic manner. See one of the ‘butterfly bowls’ of Yongzheng (1723-35) mark and period, painted in the famille rose palette with medallions formed by butterflies and flowers, preserved also in the British Museum, London (accession no. 1936,0413.26). During the Qianlong reign, the motif became more popular. Butterflies and flowers very similar to those on the present vase can be seen, for example, on handled double-gourd vases, such as one formerly in the Yuen Family Collection, included in Selected Treasures of Chinese Art: Min Chiu Society Thirtieth Anniversary Exhibition, Hong Kong Museum of Art, Hong Kong, 1990-1, cat. no. 166.

Combinations of butterflies and flowers are not only pleasing motifs, but also replete with meaning, often forming auspicious rebuses to convey happiness, long life, riches, merit and other good wishes. While the Chinese pronunciation for butterfly ‘die’ is homophonous with the word ‘die’ meaning to ‘duplicate’, it can be used to double the auspicious wishes expressed by other designs.

Of the present design, a very similar single vase is known, of similar size, differing in details of the decoration and with a graviata ground, also from the collections of Lord Loch of Drylaw and Alfred Morrison, later in the collection of J.T. and Ping Y. Tai, illustrated in Soame Jenyns, Later Chinese Porcelain: The Ch’ing Dynasty (1644-1912), London, 1951, pl. CVI, fig. 2, sold at Christie’s London, 18th October 1971, lot 65 and again at Christie’s Hong Kong, 3rd Dec 2008, lot 2388. None of the many yangcai vases preserved in the National Palace Museum, Taipei, is of comparable size. The Palace Museum, Beijing, owns another yangcai vase painted with similar designs in a similar colour scheme, but of square baluster form, with a pair of archaistic dragon handles (accession no. gu-154715). This bright pink enamel was otherwise rarely used as a ground colour on yangcai porcelains.

Related butterfly and flower designs can also be found on two pairs of yangcai miniature vases with ruby-coloured ground, one in the collection of the National Palace Museum, Taipei (accession nos gu-ci-7373 and gu-ci-7374), illustrated in Liao Pao Show 2008, op.cit., cat. no. 22 and p. 279, fig. 116; the other in the Baur Foundation, Museum of Far Eastern Art, Geneva (accession no. CB.CC.1930.626), illustrated in John Ayers, Chinese Ceramics in The Baur Collection, vol. 2, Geneva, 1999, pls 236-7. Liao suggests that these four vases are the two pairs which, according to the Zaobanchu Huojidang (Archives of the Imperial Workshops), were ordered to be sent to the Qianqinggong, the Palace of Heavenly Purity, one of the main palace buildings in the Forbidden City, Beijing, in the 6th and 7th years of the Qianlong reign (1741 and 1742).

Butterflies and flowers are also seen, in other combinations, on a ruby-ground yangcai vase from the collection of George Salting in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London (accession no. C.1461-1910), included in the exhibition China: The Three Emperors, 1662-1795, Royal Academy of Arts, London, 2005-6, cat. no. 219; and on a blue-ground piece in the Palace Museum, Beijing (accession no. gu-154599), illustrated in The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum. Porcelains with Cloisonné Enamel Decoration and Famille Rose Decoration, Hong Kong, 1999, pl. 30.

此對洋彩瓶紋飾秀麗，施明豔粉地，繪蝶舞花間，繽紛絢爛，美不勝收。景德鎮御窰廠燒洋彩瓷以獻乾隆，開窰時間甚短，成器稀貴，粉地尤為難得。洋彩瓷紋飾華美，用色斑斕，乃清宮瓷器最高品級之一。洋彩瓶產量疏少，依式樣或出孤品或作一對。除台北故宮館藏外，傳世洋彩瓶成對者寥若晨星，器形魁碩如此對者更可遇不可求。

「洋彩」之稱初見於雍正十三年（1735年），由景德鎮御窰廠督陶官唐英（1682-1756年）定名。《陶務敘略碑記》中，唐英寫道：「洋彩器皿，本朝新仿西洋琺瑯畫法，人物、山水、花卉、翎毛無不精細入神。」乾隆八年（1743年），唐英又撰《陶冶圖冊》，就洋彩設色，再釋：「圓琢白器，五彩繪畫。摹仿西洋，故曰洋彩。須選素習繪事高手，將各種顏料研細調和，以白瓷片畫染燒試，必熟諳顏料火候之性，始可由粗及細，熟中生巧，總以眼明心細手准為佳。」（見廖寶秀，《華麗彩瓷：乾隆洋彩》，台北故宮博物院，2008年，頁14）。

如唐英所言，洋彩源自西洋工匠，康熙一朝（1662-1722年）已傳入宮。較於往昔釉彩，洋彩更顯柔麗纖巧。洋匠用彩前所未有，令繪瓷配色推陳出新，畫片圖樣亦別開生面，題材多為歐洲時興。恰如此對，花蝶佈局疏落有致，非中國紋飾傳統構圖，設色善用光影明暗，三維視效躍然眼前。

彩蝶成群，翩然飛舞，花卉繁多，有牡丹、木蘭、桃花、梅枝，及蓮、菊、蘭、竹等，狀貌生動寫實，應汲取自歐洲繪本，如瑪麗亞・西碧拉・梅里安（1647-1717年）之妙筆；瑞士博物學家梅里安生於德國，畢生鑽研植物、昆蟲，尤通曉蝴蝶，並出版手繪，刻畫入微，梅里安逝後，其女繼承遺志，將畫集完善。1705年，《蘇里南昆蟲變態圖譜》問世，梅里安聲名鵲起，其中有圖繪蝴蝶花果，纖毫盡現（圖一）。

瓷器繪蝴蝶由來已久，可溯至明永樂朝（1403-24年）或更早，如一青花玉壺春瓶，兩側各繪蝴蝶一隻，振翅於萱花之上，藏台北故宮博物院（編號：故瓷14975）。成化年間（1465-1487年），花蝶紋始作彩繪，可見鬪彩小罐繪花枝彩蝶，如一例，大維德中國藝術基金會收藏，現存倫敦大英博物館（編號PDF.797）。直到清代（1644-1911年），新式彩料與格調自歐洲傳入，花蝶紋乃開寫實之風，可比一粉彩團蝶紋盌，雍正年款，亦存倫敦大英博物館（編號1936,0413.26）。乾隆朝，花蝶紋更加風靡，有蝶戀花紋飾與此對頗似，如葫蘆瓶一例，袁氏舊藏，錄入《歷代文物萃珍：敏求精舍三十週年紀念展》，香港藝術館，香港，1990至1991年，編號166。

花蝶並置悅目娛心且涵義豐富，常作雙關，帶喜樂、長壽、富貴、德望等吉祥寓意。漢語中，「蝶」與「疊」同音，更頌福願疊至。

可比一瓶，同繪蝶戀花，尺寸相近，獨不成對，粉地軋道，初亦為洛赫勛爵及艾弗瑞・莫里森遞藏，後由戴潤齋雅蓄，載詹甯斯，《Later Chinese Porcelain: The Ch’ing Dynasty (1644-1912)》，倫敦，1951年，圖版CVI，圖2，曾兩度售於佳士得，先倫敦，1971年10月18日，編號65，後香港，2008年12月3日，編號2388。台北故宮藏洋彩瓶若干，但無一尺寸堪比此對。北京故宮另藏一例，紋飾、設色皆相近，然作方瓶，帶雙龍耳（編號：故154715）。除上述例，洋彩瓷地鮮用粉紅。

兩對胭脂紅地洋彩小瓶亦飾蝶戀花，一對藏台北故宮（故瓷7373及故瓷7374），錄於廖寶秀，出處同前，2008年，編號22及頁279，圖116；另一對藏日內瓦鮑氏東方藝術館（編號CB.CC.1930.626），錄於約翰．艾爾斯，《Chinese Ceramics in The Baur Collection》，卷2，日內瓦，1999年，圖版236-7。據廖寶秀研究，此兩對洋彩瓶乃於乾隆六年及七年進貢紫禁城乾清宮，《造辦處活計當》有載。

花蝶紋亦見一胭脂紅地洋彩瓶，George Salting 寶蓄，藏倫敦維多利亞與艾爾伯特博物館（編號C.1461-1910），展於《盛世華章》，皇家藝術學院，倫敦，2005-06年，編號219；及一藍地洋彩瓶，藏北京故宮（編號：故154599），錄於《故宮博物院藏文物珍品全集・琺瑯彩・粉彩》，香港，1999年，圖版30。