A rare 'famille-rose' blue-ground and gilt-decorated lobed vase mark and period of Qianlong

well potted of quatrelobed section, the ovoid body sitting on a splayed foot and rising to a flared mouth, the sides with four oval panels painted in soft famille-rose enamels enclosing tranquil landscape scenes, with figures engaged in various pursuits beside wide rivers with rippling surfaces, running past scattered trees and pavillions, and high mountain peaks in the distance, with raised gilt borders, reserved on a rich royal-blue ground decorated with dense, stylised lotus scrolls in gilt, with raised band at the shoulder with keyfret borders, the base and foot with further keyfret bands, a band of ruyi below the gilt rim, the countersunk base inscribed with the six-character sealmark in underglaze-blue

This magnificent Qianlong mark and period vase belongs to a small group of differently shaped wares all painted in famille-rose decoration over a gilt-enamelled blue-ground.

 

See a large famille-rose two-handled vase decorated with landscape within reserved panels over gilt painted blue-ground illustrated in The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum. Porcelains with Cloisonne Enamel Decoration and Famille Rose Decoration, Hong Kong, 1999, pl. 130, together with a famille-rose octagonal vase painted with birds and flowers within reserved panels over similar gilt decorated blue-ground, pl. 131, and a famille-rose lantern-shaped vase with a fruit motif within panels over the same gilt decorated blue-ground, pl. 133.