Finely potted with domed lower bulb of truncated form, the gently curved sides with slightly raised broad band encircling the shoulder, rising to a waisted neck with central rib, all surmounted by a garlic-shaped upper bulb joined to the lower section with elegantly arched handles culminating at both ends in ruyi-head terminals, applied allover with a finely mottled glaze ranging from pale blue through turquoise to purple, the base is incised with a six-character seal mark..

Provenance: 1. Sotheby's Hong Kong, 1 November 1999, lot. 348
2. An Important Private Chinese Collection
3. Sotheby's Hong Kong, 8 October 2006, lot. 1010
4. The Ten-views Lingbi Rock Retreat Collection, no. EK303.

Exhibited: Pure And Natural: Special Exhibition of Ming and Qing Monochrome Porcelains, Poly Art Museum, 2018.

Literature: 1. Sotheby's Thirty Years in Hong Kong:"1973-2003", Hong Kong, 2003, pl. 143
2. Pure And Natural: Special Exhibition of Ming and Qing Monochrome Porcelains, Poly Art Museum, 2018, no. 99.

Note: Double gourd vases in this form are very important and fine decoration to the Qing imperial court during Yongzheng and Qianlong period. However, it is extremely rare to see examples vases of lower bulb of truncated form applied with robin’s egg-glaze. Compare two rarely seen robin egg’s-glaze double gourd vases with bulbous lower section from the Chang Foundation, Taiwan, illustrated in James Spencer, Selected Chinese Ceramics from Han to Qing Dynasties, Taipei, 1990, pl.132 (fig.4), sold at Sotheby's London, 10 December 1985, lot 271; another illustrated in Fujioka Ryoichi & Hasebe Gakuji, eds, Sekai tōji zenshū/Ceramic Art of the World, vol. XIV: Min/Ming Dynasty, Tokyo, 1983, p.72, pl.80 (fig.5).