A Chinese porcelain famille rose square vase. Early Yongzheng, circa 1723. Courtesy Marchant

decorated with tapering panels each with a different bird, including a bird of paradise, all perched amongst flowering branches of magnolia, peony, camellia, winter prunus, tree peony and prunus within a black enamel frame with chamfered corners, beneath faceted panels with stylized pink flowerheads on a yellow ground reserved on a pink flowerhead diaper ground and beneath grisaille landscape panels on the gently flaring neck, the galleried rim with a green-ground keyfret band. Ormolu stand. 23 ¾ inches, 60.2 cm high.  Price on request

Formerly in a private French collection, purchased from the heirs of a career soldier who brought it back from China at the end of the 19th Century.

A famille verte vase of identical form with moulded relief figures is illustrated by Anthony du Boulay in The Taft Museum, Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art, 1995, no. 1931.92, p. 648.

Marchant  120 Kensington Church Street, London, United Kingdom W8 4BH. www.marchantiques.com