A rare famille-rose 'floral' handled vase, Qing dynasty, Daoguang period

Collection of George Hathaway Taber (1859-1940), prior to 1935, and thence by descent.

Gifted to the Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, 1959 (accession no. 59.7.9).

This grand yet playful vase – vibrantly decorated with a floral scene bursting with life – is remarkable in the vibrant color of its design and its fine attention to detail. With gilt rock-work handles and an extremely rare integral trompe-l’oeil stand, the present vase makes a conspicuous nod to the grand and creative, often floridly decorated, wares of the late Qianlong period. Yet, unlike many handled Qianlong pieces, and indeed many Daoguang pieces, the present vase also possesses an understated tranquil quality more akin to works from the Yongzheng period. Its lush floral scene, resplendent with color, presented against a pure white ground, the present vase represents the very essence of Daoguang period (1821-1850) porcelain production, as the artisans of Jingdezhen continued to adopt and adapt earlier imperial designs for ever changing royal tastes.

For the Yongzheng origins of this lively asymmetrical floral design, compare a number of related vases featuring fruiting branches on white grounds, preserved in the Qing court, illustrated in The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum. Porcelains with Cloisonné Enamel Decoration and Famille Rose Decoration, Hong Kong, 1999, pls 45-47; and the famous famille rose tianqiuping from the collection of R.H.R. Palmer, illustrated in Soame Jenyns, Later Chinese Porcelain, 1951, pl. XC, fig. 2. For possible prototypes of this design, adopting the Yongzheng aesthetic and injecting a further sense of grandeur and creativity, compare a related handled vase of Qianlong mark and period, sold in our London rooms, 17th November 1999, lot 763; a related pair of Jiaqing mark and period with more formal enamel borders, sold at Christie’s London, 10th May 2011, lot 238; and another very closely related Qianlong vase with an integral trompe-l’oil stand featuring a more typical ruby ground to the neck, sold in our Hong Kong rooms, 26th October 1993, lot 258.

Daoguang examples of this lively borderless style, of any mark, are extremely rare. Compare a related handled vase but with formal enamel borders, of Shendetang mark, illustrated in The Complete Collection, op. cit., pl. 189; a borderless Shendetang example without handles, featuring a related flower branch design alongside children at play, illustrated in Porcelains with Inscriptions of Shendetang Collected by the Palace Museum, Beijing, 2014, pl. 63; and another example, of Daoguang mark, with shou handles, sold in our Hong Kong rooms, 22nd May 1985, lot 165.

The present mark, reading 'Xiezhu zhuren zao (made by the Master of the Bamboo Flute),' is also exceedingly rare and identifies the piece as made for the Xiezhuju (Xie Bamboo Studio); a personal study of the Daoguang Emperor, once located in the Jiangnan Gardens of the Summer Palace.