the flattened circular body rising from a short spreading foot to a tall cylindrical neck, flanked by a pair of ruyi handles, moulded to both sides with a peach-shaped panel in low relief and painted with bats flying around leafy branches with clusters of fruit, surrounded by scrolling lotus, the sides with a vertical band of lingzhi scroll, rising to a band of lotus scroll, with upright lappets and further lingzhi at the neck, the base inscribed with a seal mark

Provenance: Sotheby's London, 14th November 2000, lot 158.

This moonflask has been executed to imitate the celebrated wares of the early 15th century through both its form and the use of the ‘heaped and piled’ technique to render the design. Qing craftsmen skilfully manipulated the cobalt pigment to simulate the uneven blue tones of early Ming underglaze blue designs. Its flattened globular form, tall and gently waisted neck, and two handles were also adapted from early Ming prototypes, such as a moonflask attributed to the Yongle reign (1403-24), painted with flower sprays, from the former collection of the Ottoman Sultans and now in the Topkapi Saray Museum, Istanbul, illustrated in Regina Krahl, Chinese Ceramics in the Topkapi Saray Museum, Istanbul, vol. 2, London, 1986, pl. 613.

Qianlong mark and period moonflasks of this type are held in important museums and private collections worldwide; see one in the Nanjing Museum, published in The Official Kiln Porcelain of the Chinese Qing Dynasty, Shanghai, 2004, pl. 220; another in the Indianapolis Museum of Art, included in the Museum’s exhibition Beauty and Tranquillity. The Eli Lilly Collection of Chinese Art, Indianapolis, 1983, cat. no. 116; and a third included in the exhibition Ch’ing Porcelain from the Wah Kwong Collection, Art Gallery, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, 1973, cat. no. 66. Further examples include two sold in our Hong Kong rooms, one from the collection of R.I.C. Herridge, sold 29th November 1978, lot 235, and the other, 7th October 2015, lot 3725.

A fine blue and white 'peach' moonflask, seal mark and period of Qianlong (1736-1795), 24.4 cm., 9 5/8  in. Sold for 3,200,000 HKD at Sotheby's Hong Kong, 7th October 2015, lot 3725. Photo: Sotheby's

(Cf. my post A fine blue and white 'Peach' moonflask, Seal mark and period of Qianlong)

Sotheby's. Important Chinese Art, Londres, 10 mai 2017, 02:00 PM