154 - QIANJIANGCAI GARLIC-HEAD VASE WITH PRUNUS BLOSSOMS, BIRDS AND INSCRIPTION, LATE QING

QIANJIANGCAI GARLIC-HEAD VASE WITH PRUNUS BLOSSOMS, BIRDS AND INSCRIPTION, LATE QING Dimensions: Height 25,1 cm Wide 15 cm Depth 15 cm Weight: 892 grams A porcelain garlic-head vase with a full rounded body, slender neck and flaring, bulbous mouth. Delicately painted prunus branches spread across the pale surface, their small blossoms picked out in soft colours. Birds appear among the branches, while an inscription and signature in dark and iron-red enamels introduce the visual rhythm of calligraphy. The qianjiangcai palette developed a distinctive painterly character in the later Qing period. Drawing on the aesthetics of ink painting, decorators favoured subdued washes, seasonal plants and poetic inscriptions rather than densely filled ornamental fields. Prunus blossoms, opening in the cold months, carried associations of endurance and renewal. The open white ground gives the painted branches room to breathe, and the inscription links the vessel to the tradition of scholar painting.