A rare Pair of pink-ground 'Famille-Rose' Tri-Neck Vases marks and period of Qianlong

each of finely potted globular tri-lobed form, rising to three slender cylindrical necks with an everted mouth, each lobe delicately enamelled in vibrant colours of the 'famille-rose' palette with a large stylised lotus bloom, and a bat holding a succulent peach with leafy sprigs on curling ribbons, all reserved on a deep pink-ground with colourful scrolling foliage and flowering lotus, between a band of ruyi around the neck and ruyi panels encircling the foot, the rim gilt, the interior and base glazed turquoise, with a central square reserved in white on the base for the six-character seal mark in red enamel  

The Qianlong Emperor challenged his artists to make ceramic pieces that were technically innovative and unconventional in their aesthetics. During his reign the refinement of material and craftsmanship and the expansion of the range of glaze and enamel colours allowed potters at the imperial kilns of Jingdezhen to become highly ambitious in their repertoire. The present pair of vases fulfilled all of Qianlong’s special requirements for ornamentation, innovation and show. The shape of these vases is recorded in Geng Baochang, Ming Qing ciqi jianding, Hong Kong, 1993, p. 263, fig. 450.10, where Geng calls it san lian ganlan ping (triple-joined olive-shaped bottle).

The closest comparable example to the present pair of vases is the famous white-glazed tri-neck vase with fruiting pomegranate branches design in relief, in the National Palace Museum, Taipei, published in the Illustrated Catalogue of Ch’ing Dynasty Porcelain in the National Palace Museum, vol. II, Tokyo, 1981, pl. 87.

For other examples of these highly innovative and unusually shaped multi-neck pieces see a double gourd-shaped vase with three necks, decorated with bats and gourd vines in famille-rose enamels, illustrated in The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum. Porcelains with Cloisonne Enamel Decoration and Famille Rose Decoration, Shanghai, 1999, pl. 116; and a tea-dust glazed vase with six necks included in the Special Exhibition of K’ang-his, Yung-cheng and Ch’ien-lung Porcelain Ware from the Ch’ing Dynasty in the National Palace Museum, National Palace Museum, Taipei, 1986, cat.no. 96.

Compare also a single-neck ganlan ping decorated with very similar flower design in famille-rose on a celadon-ground included in the Illustrated Catalogue of Ch’ing Dynasty Porcelain in the National Palace Museum, op.cit.,pl. 33.