Chinese porcelain vases with French mounts, in the form of a hollow, tapering stem of bamboo, with moulded sections and leafy sprays on the side; also a side-shoot and growing stem of lingzhi magic fungus, its centre picked out in copper-red. The fine, light celadon glaze covers the interior and the recessed base, where removal of a round patch suggests it may have been drilled, perhaps for the insertion of an internal support; the mouth rim glaze has been ground off, possibly for the addition of a mount. Fitted with a scrolling C and S-scroll pierced rockwork and ribbon-tied reeded gilt-bronze foot; the side-shoot is capped with a gilt-bronze leaf flower spray.

The monochrome grey-green celadon glaze which had been a staple of the Longquan kilns for centuries during the Ming period and earlier was taken up by the porcelain factories of Jingdezhen in the seventeenth century; and from the reign of Kangxi (1662–1722) onwards, wares of distinction were made in this style, frequently with reticent incised decoration. They were among those which the marchand-merciers of Paris most often sought out for mounting in gilt bronze, and many fine examples of their art, together with that of English bronze makers, displayed to effect at the Royal Pavilion, Brighton, were brought together by George IV.

Text adapted from Chinese and Japanese Works of Art in the Collection of Her Majesty The Queen: Volume II.