A Canton enamel 'flower balls’ gu-form vase, Mark and period of Qianlong | 清乾隆 廣東銅胎畫琺瑯皮球花出戟花觚 《乾隆年製》款

The present gu-form vase is closely related to a vessel in the National Palace Museum, Taipei, illustrated in Enamel Ware in the Ming and Ch'ing Dynasties, Taipei, 1999, pl. 140, of the same form and painted floret decoration but of much larger size. Similar floret motifs can be seen on a painted enamel yu vessel with loop handles included ibid., pl. 139; on three large vases, from the Qing Court collection and now in the Palace Museum, Beijing, published in Zhongguo jin yin boli falangqi quanji, falanqi (II) [Complete works of Chinese gold, silver, glass and enamelware: Enamelware (II)], vol. 6, Shijiazhuang, 2002, pls 158-160; and on a loop-handled teapot illustrated in The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum. Metal-bodied Enamel Ware, Hong Kong, 2002, pl. 199. Compare also the decoration found on a Qianlong mark and period enamel foliate bowl and cover sold in our New York rooms, 26th November 1991, lot 397. A pair of globular ewers in the National Palace Museum, Taipei, with similar decoration, but unmarked, is published in Liu Liang-yin, Chinese Enamel ware, Its History, Authentication and Conservation, Taipei, 1978, p. 74 (top). A painted enamel bowl with a very similar design and with a Qianlong four-character mark in red enamel was included in the exhibition Chinese Painted Enamels of the Eighteenth Century, The Chinese Porcelain Company, New York, 1993, cat. no. 12. This bowl is identified as having been made in Guangzhou. Furthermore, it is also proposed that the bowl and other vessels painted with a similar design may have originated from the same workshop and were most likely made for the court as tribute items.

The colourful floret medallion motif first appeared during the Yongzheng period and became especially popular by the Qianlong reign. See a Yongzheng globular vase illustrated in Kangxi. Yongzheng. Qianlong. Qing Porcelain from the Palace Museum Collection, Hong Kong, 1989, pl. 45; and a bowl sold at Christie's Hong Kong, 31st October 2000, lot 912. For Qianlong examples, see a globular jar sold in our rooms, 1st May 2001, lot 562.