China, 18th-19th century. The ovoid body rising from the short tapered foot to a waisted neck with everted lip. Superbly enameled in bright colors with some details and contours painted in iron-red to depict pairs of animals, including phoenixes, cranes, birds, and ducks, amid peony blossoms and other flowers, swirling clouds, rockwork, and a gnarled leafy maple tree. The base with an underglaze-blue six-character seal mark da Qing Yongzheng nianzhi.

Provenance: Estate of Jacqueline Kemp, owner of Windsor Antiques in Darien, Connecticut, USA.
Condition: Very good condition with minor wear and firing flaws, particularly to interior of neck, as well as a glaze line (ca. 2.4 cm long) to the shoulder which is near-invisible to the naked eye and does not reach the rim.

Weight: 1,792 g
Dimensions: Height 21.5 cm

The present vase was likely originally gifted to a married couple, as all animals depicted on the vase appear in pairs.

Expert’s note: The present vase belongs to a small group of Yongzheng-marked ceramics with intense, bright colors and fine enameling and painting. A famille rose dish sold at Christie’s in 2016 (see Auction result comparison), for example, shows similarly painted and enameled peony blossoms, two similar tones of green enamel, a similarly “diluted” tone of blue enamel, contours and minute details all neatly picked out in underglaze iron-red, and pitting, all clear and distinct characteristics also found on the present vase. Given the compelling evidence, it may be suggested that the present vase comes from the same workshop as the Christie’s dish, although possibly of a later date.

Auction result comparison: Compare a related famille rose dish, also with a Yongzheng mark in underglaze blue and showing a similar color palette and style of painting, at Christie’s New York in Collected in America: Chinese Ceramics from the Metropolitan Museum of Art on 15 September 2016, lot 932, sold for USD 60,000.