Elegantly potted with a narrow waist between the slightly compressed globular lower bulb and smaller upper bulb, gently rising from the shoulder to a narrow mouth, covered overall with a pale sea-green glaze thining to white at the rim, with a matching cover, the recessed celadon-glazed foot enclosed within an unglazed ring and inscribed in underglaze blue with a six-character mark. 

Property from the Currier Museum of Art, Manchester, New Hampshire.

Provenance: Gift of Mrs. Eliot A Carter, 1991

Note: For other examples of double-gourd vases with matching covers, see one in Chinese Porcelain, The S.C. Ko Tianminlou Collection, vol. 1, Hong Kong, 1987, pl. 160; another in the collection of the Nanjing Museum, included in the exhibition Qing Imperial Porcelain of the Kangxi, Yongzheng and Qianlong Reigns, Hong Kong, 1995, Catalogue no.69, and also illustrated in Treasures in the Royalty: The Official Kiln Porcelain of the Chinese Qing Dynasty Zhongguo qingdai guanyao ciqi, Shanghai, 2003, p.341; and another from the Jingguantang collection, illustrated in Splendour of the Qing Dynasty, Hong Kong Museum of Art, Hong Kong, 1995, cat. no. 212, and sold at Christie's, Hong Kong, 28 October 2002, lot 723.

See also a vase in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, illustrated by S.G.Valenstein, The Hertzman Collection of Chinese Ceramics, New York, 1992, pl.98; and another illustrated in Qing Imperial Monochromes: The Zande Lou Collection, Shanghai, 2005, pl.42.