Painted enamel vase with pheasants and herbaceous peonies

This pear-shaped vase (yuhuchunping) stands 16.3 centimeters tall and is a prized piece in the Tianjin Museum collection. Its clay body is fine and white, the glaze lustrous as jade. On the belly, painted in enamel colors, two pheasants perch close together on a rocky outcrop, surrounded by herbaceous peonies in full bloom; the layered colors give the scene a sense of depth. Two lines of verse fill the space above the scene: "Green stems lift the dew-laden buds, red blooms rest beyond the railing". A vermilion seal appears beside the inscription, while the base bears a square, four-character reign mark reading: "Made in the Qianlong reign (1736-95)".

Bringing together poetry, calligraphy and painting, the vase opens like a scroll. Painted enamel porcelain was produced for the Qing imperial court: the plain body was first fired at Jingdezhen and then transported to the imperial workshops, where court artisans applied enamel decoration before the vessel underwent a second firing at low temperature. Reserved for the imperial household, such pieces were produced in limited numbers, and relatively few have survived.

www.chinabound.cn
Travel with ease in China, and with meaning.