A CHINESE IMPERIAL IRON-RED ALTAR VESSEL

QIANLONG 1736-95

The ovoid body painted with four lotus sprays between lappets and leaves, with a raised band to the tall cylindrical neck, all raised on a wide domed foot, the base concave, 22cm.

Provenance: from an English private collection, London.

Cf. A similar altar vase can be seen in a painting by Giuseppe Castiglione in The National Palace Museum, Taipei, illustrating the Qianlong Emperor beneath trees and beside a table with a number of other treasures; see Palastmuseum Peking Schätze aus der Verbotenen Stadt, Berlin, 1985, no.41, pl.24. For another example presented to Cheltenham College, England, by Yuan Shikai in 1914, and now in the Weishaupt Collection, see G Avitabile, From The Dragon's Treasure, London, 1987, no.176, p.127. See also P Lam, Qing Imperial Porcelain, Hong Kong, 1995, no.83. Another example can be found in the British Museum, London.