A very fine and unusual blue and white cylindrical Vase Mark and Period of Yongzheng

of finely potted cylindrical form, rising to a waisted neck with a flared mouth, delicately painted in vivid underglaze-blue with simulated 'heaping and piling' effect with four leafy sprays of lotus blooms, between interlocking floral scrolls at the base and a band of foliate scrolls suspending ruyi heads at the shoulder, the waisted neck encircled with four stylised florets, all within double line borders, the countersunk base inscribed with a six-character mark in underglaze-blue within a double circle 

Sotheby’s London, 6^th July 1976, lot 209.

Exhibition of Ancient Chinese Ceramics, Art Gallery, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, 1981, cat.no. 113.

Yongzheng vases of this cylindrical shape can be found decorated with a number of differently arranged flower scroll designs. See a vase of this form but with a band of mixed flower scroll painted on the body, from the T.Y. Chao collection, sold in these rooms, 19^th May 1987, lot 275, and again at Christie’s Hong Kong, 1^st October 1991, lot 831, included in the Exhibition of Ch’ing Porcelain from the Wah Kwong Collection, Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, 1973, cat.no. 62, and in the Exhibition of Ming and Ch’ing Porcelain from the Collection of the T.Y. Chao Family Foundation, Hong Kong Museum of Art, Hong Kong, 1978, cat.no. 84. For another design version of this type of vase see the blue and white Yongzheng vase sold in these rooms, 24^th November 1987, lot 67, and again at Christie’s Hong Kong, 30^th October 1995, lot 660, painted with a broad frieze of stylised pomegranates supported on interlaced lotus stems.

Compare also a Yongzheng ‘lantern-shaped’ storage jar with a cover, decorated with sprays of auspicious fruits, illustrated in The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum. Blue and White Porcelain with Underglazed Red (III), Shanghai, 2000, pl. 104.