A rare blue and white 'flower-balls' ash container, Seal mark and period of Tongzhi | 清同治 青花皮球花紋灰槽 《同治年製》款

This rare rectangular vessel was used to contain the charcoal ashes from a brazier, and appears to be a form specific to the late Qing period. A similar container, although painted in polychrome enamels with a design of butterflies, is depicted in a portrait of the Dowager Empress Cixi, see China's Hidden Century: 1796–1912, British Museum, London, 2023, pl. 1.13 (illustrated in this sale catalogue, p. 63). The same 'flower balls' design is found on a blue and white Xianfeng mark and period rectangular jardinière, exhibited in Imperial Porcelain of the Late Qing from the Simon Kwan Collection, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, 1983, cat. no. 243, sold twice at Christie's: first in their Singapore rooms, 30th March 1997, lot 243, and again in their Hong Kong rooms, 30th May 2006, lot 1475.