*An exceptional Chinese Imperial underglaze blue and copper-red bottle vase six character Qianlong seal mark and of the period 1736-95, the globular body with a garlic-mouth neck and raised on a flaring foot, painted with three Buddhist lion dogs, each with a tightly curling mane and bushy tail, variously depicted playing with large brocade balls adorned with ribbons amidst flame wisps, all within double concentric underglaze blue bands, a band of lappets to the foot, the shoulder with a lotus scroll reserved on a fish roe ground, all beneath acanthus, lingzhi and lotus to the neck, the neckrim with large upright lotus petals, 36.3cm.

Provenance: formerly in a private American collection.

Cf. The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum, Blue and White Porcelain with Underglaze Red (III), p.235, no.215, where a circular box and cover with a seal mark of similar style is illustrated.