Provenance: S.C. Coles Collection, London

Note: This very rare jar is based on an earlier Yongzheng period prototype such as the example sold at Sotheby's Hong Kong, 20 May 1986, lot 67. Compare also with a similarly decorated Qianlong-marked blue and white bottle vase sold at Christie's London, 9 November 2010, lot 306. The design is also found on much larger Qianlong-marked jars such as a large ovoid jar sold at Christie's Hong Kong, 29 May 2007, lot 1461.

S.C. Coles was an antiquarian book dealer with a shop near the British Museum in the 1940s. A keen collector of Chinese ceramics and a close friend of Soame Jenyns, he was an active member of the Oriental Ceramics Society and he lent a number of pieces from his own collection for Oriental Ceramics Society exhibitions.