A large and rare blue and white 'longevity' vase, fanghu. Qianlong six-character seal mark and of the period. Photo Bonhams

Sturdily potted in the form of an archaic bronze fanghuvessel, raised on a slightly splayed foot with wide hips and steep shoulders leading towards a quatrelobed neck, flanked by a pair of hollowed square loops, painted in brilliant tones of underglaze-blue with a raised peach-shaped cartouche featuring ripe peaches issuing from leafy branches, the bats depicted feasting on the fruits of longevity and biting on a wan symbol tied with a ribbon, further interspersed with elaborate shou chrysanthemum blossoms amidst dense leafy vine scrools, all beneath a band of floral motifs with plantain lappets and lightning clouds, ruyi-head scrolls and wave scrolls, the base with a six-character zhuanshu seal mark. 49cm high - Estimate: HK$ 3.5 million - 4 million / US$ 450,000 - 520,000 / £300,000 - 340,000

This monumental vase is one of a select group of large porcelain vases produced for the Qianlong court in the shape of an ancient bronze vessel. For another Qianlong reign-marked blue and white vase of similar fanghu form from the Qing Court collection, preserved in the National Palace Museum, Taipei, see Blue and White Ware of the Ch'ing Dynasty, Taipei, 1968, Book II, pl. 13. It shares the same central panel, but is painted with different flower scrolls and borders and is slightly smaller. For an example of the same size with closely matching decoration, see a vase sold at Sotheby's Hong Kong, 12 May 1976, lot 112; and again in 13 November 1990, lot 244, illustrated inSotheby's Hong Kong Twenty Years, no. 182. See also a third example sold recently at China Council, 6 June 2010, lot 1162.

For other large examples of Qianlong blue and white porcelain following archaic prototypes, see a pair of vases of huform preserved in the Palace Museum, Beijing, illustrated in Views of Antiquity in the Qing Imperial Palace. Special Exhibition to Celebrate the 80th Anniversary of the Establishment of the Palace Museum, Macau, 2005, pp.140-141, pl.40.