A fine and rare famille-rose ruby-ground vase mark and period of Qianlong

the well potted ovoid body rising from a slightly flared foot to a waisted neck and out-turned rim, the exterior finely painted in vivid enamels of the famille-rose palette with lotus blooms growing from meandering leafy and budding stems, the shoulder with four blue bats, the foot encircled with a raised key-fret band below a border of upright lappets above, all reserved on a warm ruby-ground, the rim with a band of ruyi-heads and stylised florets on a yellow ground, the interior and base turquoise, the base with a central white-glazed squre reserved for the six-character iron-red seal-mark

With its generous proportions, rich spectrum of enamels and impeccable craftsmanship this vase is among the finest and most impressive pieces of Qianlong porcelain. The superb enamelling and the well balanced shape make this piece a particularly successful and aesthetically pleasing Qianlong period design.

Related flower decoration on a ruby-red ground appears on a meiping preserved in the Palace Museum, Beijing, illustrated in Kangxi. Yongzheng. Qianlong: Qing Porcelain from the Palace Museum Collection, Hong Kong, 1989, p. 361, pl. 42; on a pear-shaped vase sold in these rooms, 20^th November 1985, lot 144; and on an oviform vase in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, included in Suzanne G. Valenstein, A Handbook of Chinese Ceramics, New York, 1989, pl. 278.