34 - SMALL BLUE AND WHITE DOUBLE-GOURD VASE WITH FIGURAL DECORATION, KANGXI PERIOD (1662–1722)

SMALL BLUE AND WHITE DOUBLE-GOURD VASE WITH FIGURAL DECORATION, KANGXI PERIOD (1662–1722) Dimensions: Height 9,1 cm Wide 4,3 cm Depth 4,3 cm Weight: 51 grams A miniature blue-and-white porcelain vase of double-gourd form, with a rounded lower bulb rising into a slender upper section and narrow neck. The lower body is painted in cobalt with a compact figural landscape, the figures and surrounding terrain rendered in fluid washes against the clean white porcelain ground. The undecorated upper section provides a quiet visual counterweight to the pictorial base. The double gourd has long carried auspicious associations in Chinese culture, particularly with longevity and Daoist immortals, whose magical vessels were believed to contain medicines or supernatural realms. During the Kangxi period the form offered porcelain painters an elegant surface on which to combine symbolic shape with narrative blue-and-white decoration. Despite its small scale, the vase has a pronounced vertical rhythm. The rounded painted lower body anchors the composition, while the narrow neck draws the eye upward, giving this intimate object a graceful silhouette and a distinctly scholarly character.