AN EXCEPTIONAL AND RARE PAIR OF CHINESE IMPERIAL YELLOW-GROUND TIBETAN STYLE EWERS, PENBA HU

SIX CHARACTER JIAQING MARKS AND OF THE PERIOD 1796-1820

Each globular body raised on a splayed pedestal foot and rising to a knopped neck, the canopy-shaped mouth rounding inwards to a narrow opening, set with a curved spout issuing from the gaping jaws of the head of markara, each brightly enamelled with the Eight Buddhist Emblems, Bajixiang arranged in two registers amongst lotus blooms on intertwining tendrils, framed by gilt borders, bands of ruyi-head and stylised lappets, the interiors of the mouths and the bases decorated with turquoise, 19.8cm. (2)

Provenance: formerly from the collection of an American lawyer, formed over the last fifty years.

Cf. Treasures from the Snow Mountains, Gems of Tibetan Cultural Relics, p.158, no.74 for a similarly shaped gold ewer; see also The Gathering of Select Gems from Shenyang Imperial Palace Museum Collection, p.43 for another gold ewer; see also Chinese Ceramics, Porcelain of the Qing Dynasty, pp.114-115, no.101 for a Qianlong Buddhist Ewer; see R Kerr, Chinese Ceramics, pl.101 for a famille-rose Qing example; see the Simon Kwan Collection, Decoration and Meaning in Chinese Porcelain, the Smithsonian Institution for a Daoguang marked pair.