A PAIR OF FAMILLE VERTE OCTAGONAL VASES  KANGXI PERIOD (1622...

康熙五彩侍女開光圖紋八棱瓶
two hexagonal vases, each on a high, splayed foot with footring, and with a faceted pear-shaped body with a tall neck ending in a trumpet mouth.

On each body are scallop-shaped panels filled with flowering plants, a landscape, antiquities and a “Long Eliza”, in a fenced garden, reserved on a speckled green ground with small flowers. On the necks are two lappet borders and between them two ruyi borders enclosing a section with flowers. Inside and outside the rims are zigzag borders.
29.8cm high

NOTE: These two vases probably formed part of a five-piece garniture. It is interesting to note that vases of a related shape with the characteristic spreading mouth were already being made in the late 15th or early 16th century. These were probably based on Persian or North Indian metal models. It is not known, however, if the potters revised this type in the early 18th century, or developed the shape independently, using another metal model.  

PROVENANCE: Acquired from Bonhams Knightsbridge, “Chinese and Other Asian Works of Art”, 2 November 2009, Lot 168 - A Greek private collection formed in the 1950’s and 1960’s and thence by descent.

RELATED EXAMPLE: For an almost identical pair of vases see “ Chinese Ceramics in the Collection of the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam: The Ming and Qing Dynasties”, by Christiaan J. A. Jorg, Page 165, Item No: 181.