A FINE BLUE AND WHITE VASE, FANG HU MARK AND PERIOD OF QIANLONG

of rectangular pear-shape, painted in brilliant cobalt-blue tones with simulated 'heaping and piling' to the front and back face within a slightly raised peach-shaped panel with fruiting peach sprays and the wufu, reserved against a dense scroll ground of shou-centred lotus blooms, the tall waisted neck with a lotus scroll band and set with a pair of squared tubular handles with foaming wave motives, the mouth with indented corners and wave and pendent ruyi bands, all supported on a short straight foot with foaming wave band

A smaller vase of this shape and and very similar richly decorated central panel, with a Qianlong reign mark and of the period, but painted with a different flower scroll and borders, is illustrated in Porcelain of the National Palace Museum: Blue and White Ware of the Ch'ing Dynasty, book II, Hong Kong 1968, pl. 13. Compare also another larger hu of similar shape and design, sold in our New York rooms, 30th May 1990, lot 167; and another larger vase, also with a slightly different version of this form and design, sold in these rooms, 13th November 1990, lot 244.