A RARE CHINESE IMPERIAL BEIJING ENAMEL SMALL 'QUAIL AND MILLET' VASE

FOUR CHARACTER QIANLONG MARK AND OF THE PERIOD 1736-95

The slender pear-shaped body painted with two quails beneath millet and blue rocks on an Imperial yellow ground beneath a border of small blue ruyi heads and a central gilded collar. The cylindrical neck with a formal flower and leaf scroll on a pink ground, together with, and attached to, a hexagonal enamel base painted with further flower heads and leaf scrolls on a yellow ground raised on six lingzhi-shaped feet, the remains of a paper label, the vase 12cm, 20cm (overall).

Cf. The British Museum, no. 1936, 0413.46 for a closely related vase also with a four character Qianlong reign mark bequeathed by Reginald Radcliffe Cory in 1936. Quail and millet are used in Chinese as a pun for 'sui sui ping an', meaning 'everlasting peace year after year'.