A Ming-Style Blue and White Meiping. Qianlong period (1736-1795). Photo: Christie's Images Ltd 2012.

The high-shouldered body is finely painted in fifteenth century style, in deep shades of blue with simulated 'heaping and piling', with a lower register of fruiting branches of peach, pomegranate and lychee, and an upper register of flowering branches of tree peony, lotus and prunus. All of the branches issue from a sprig of lingzhi and are bordered by a band of upright leaf tips below and a band of petal lappets radiating from the base of the waisted neck, which is decorated with four small foliate sprays. 12¾ in. (32.4 cm.) high - Estimate $20,000 - $30,000

清乾隆 青花折枝花果紋梅瓶

Notes: The inspiration for this shape and pattern originates from meiping produced during the early Ming period, such as the Yongle (1403-24) vase in the Palace Museum, Beijing, illustrated inThe Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum - 34 - Blue and White Porcelain with Underglazed Red (I), Hong Kong, 2000, p. 32, no. 30.

A number of these high-shouldered meiping with Qianlong marks have been published including one in the Palace Museum, Beijing, illustrated in The Complete Collection of the Palace Museum - 36 - Blue and White Porcelain with Underglazed Red (III), Hong Kong, 2000, p. 131, no. 117; and a pair from the T.Y. Chao Collection, included in the exhibition at the Hong Kong Museum of Art, 1978, no. 79, one of which is illustrated in Blue and White Porcelains in the Tianminlou Foundation, Hong Kong, 1996, p. 222, no. 94. Several have been sold in our Hong Kong rooms: one formerly from the Robert Chang Collection, 1 December 2009, lot 1888; one from the Shorenstein Collection, 1 December 2010, lot 2970; and a pair, 30 December 2011, lot 2942. 

Christie's. Fine Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art Part II, 13 September 2012. New York, Rockefeller Plaza