Bottle-shaped Vase
Unknown Artist
1736–95
Medium
porcelain with famille rose overglaze enamel decoration
Dimensions
h. 51.4 cm
Classification
Ceramic
Department
Chinese Art
Museum
Cleveland Museum of Art
Credit
Elisabeth Severance Prentiss Collection
Accession Number
1944.184.2
About this artwork
This spectacular vase, one of a pair in the collection, depicts flowering and fruiting peach trees to convey an auspicious message of affluence and long life. Developments in enamel technology led to new possibilities in polychrome decoration of Qing imperial porcelains. Pinks appeared, lending their name to the new palette of overglaze colors (famille rose), and the addition of opaque white allowed painters to vary the value of pigments, enhancing the painterly quality of porcelain decoration.