A fine gilt-decorated iron-red beehive waterpot, taibaizun, Shendetang zhi mark, Qing dynasty, Daoguang period | 清道光 礬紅彩描金趕珠雲龍紋太白尊 《慎德堂製》款

Waterpot of this characteristic form are known as taibai zun, after the Tang dynasty poet Li Taibai, who is often depicted leaning against a large wine jar of similar form. They are also referred to as jizhao zun, because their shape resembles that of a chicken coop.

Beehive waterpots of this shape are well-known of its Kangxi-period prototype with peachbloom glazes, and belong to the iconic group of eight vessels made for the imperial scholar's desk, known as Badama. Such peachbloom-glazed waterpot from the Kangxi period are preserved in important museums and collections around the world, see one in the Palace Museum, Beijing, illustrated in Kangxi. Yongzheng. Qianlong. Qing Porcelain from the Palace Museum Collection, Hong Kong, 1989, p. 142, pl. 125; one in the Shanghai Museum, Shanghai, published in Wang Qingzheng, ed., Kangxi Porcelain Wares from the Shanghai Museum Collection, Hong Kong, 1998, pl. 206; another from the Sir Percival David Collection, now in the British Museum, London, published in Margaret Medley, Ming and Qing Monochrome Wares in the Percival David Foundation of Chinese Art, London, 1989, pl. 580.

There are also a smaller number of porcelains of this form covered in other glazes. See two white examples also dated to the Kangxi period, one from the Qing Court Collection, published in The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum. Monochrome Porcelain, Hong Kong, 1999, pl. 111; the other one was sold in these rooms, 5th April 2017, lot 3607. 

The Shendetang hall mark on the base refers to the residence of the Daoguang Emperor, which was completed in 1831, thus making Daoguang pieces with this mark attributable to the two decades between 1831 and 1850.