Note: Previously sold at Christie's Hong Kong, 18 March 1991, lot 549.

Cf. a similar vase from the collection of Mrs Joshua, illustrated by Hobson, The Later Ceramic Wares of China, pl. LIX, fig. 2; and a slightly more ovoid-shaped vase with similar decoration in the Victoria and Albert Museum is illustrated by W.B. Honey, Guide to the Later Chinese Porcelain, London, 1927, pl. 62a.

Vase, porcelain painted on the biscuit with polychrome enamels, China, Qing dynasty, Yongzheng period (1723-1735). Height: 24.8 cm, Diameter: 10.2 cm. Salting Bequest (C.1114-1910). © Victoria and Albert Museum, London

A peculiar feature of this group of famille verte wares, reserved on a black enamel ground washed over with a translucent green glaze, is that the vases were unmarked, whereas saucer-dishes and bowls are invariably inscribed. See a dish of this palette in the Victoria and Albert Museum, illustrated by R. Kerr, Chinese Ceramics: Porcelain of the Qing Dynasty, London, 1986, pl. 23; the pair of dishes from the Bernat Collection, in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, illustrated in Oriental Ceramics, The World's Great Collections, Tokyo, 1978, vol. 11, no. 263; and another included in the exhibition, Wonders of the Potter's Palette, Hong Kong Museum of Art, 1984, illustrated in the Catalogue, no. 52.