Lot 1675. A very rare blue and white garlic-head moonflask, Qianlong period (1736-1795); 12 in. (30.5 cm.) high. Estimate USD 60,000 - USD 80,000. Price realised USD 158,500. © Christie's Images Ltd 2011.  

Each side of the flattened circular body painted with a composite floral scroll encircled by a classic scroll border, the narrow sides painted with a continuous lingzhi meander, the cupped mouth with a saw-tooth band above the floral meander band, repeated on the pair of handles terminating in a ruyi panel enclosing a single lotus bloom, the rectangular base unglazed, box.  

Provenance: Christie's, Hong Kong, 29 September 1992, lot 508.
The Robert Chang Collection; Christie's, New York, 20 March 2001, lot 238. 

Exhibited: London, Christie's, Exhibition of Important Chinese Ceramics from the Robert Chang Collection, 2-14 June 1993, no. 83.

Note: For examples of fifteenth century prototypes, see the two garlic-headed moonflasks in the collection of the National Palace Musuem, Taipei, illustrated in Blue-and-White Ware of the Ming Dynasty, Hong Kong, 1963, Book II, Part 1, pp. 38-41, pls. 9-10c.