A pair of pale blue glaze Chinese porcelain vases with French gilt-bronze mounts, With ovoid body, waisted neck with slightly flared mouth, and foot. Painted in blue with similar designs of chrysanthemums with red blooms, the petals overpainted in white, by a rock and a bamboo stem on which is perched a large bird, with lingzhi fungus growing by a bamboo, and above, a dragonfly. The gilt-bronze covers are moulded with gently domed, radiating petals on a pounced ground, with a berried acanthus finial. Surrounding this is a rope-twist moulding and plain dished edge, above a beaded rim, above a rebate for the lid moulding. Attached to the laurel rim band by the means of a lug with a screw is a pair of double-scroll handles in the form of snakes rising from the shoulder, two snakes at each side with crossed tails, with a pair of masks on the neck linked by swags filled with fruit and foliage; and below, a stepped base with two bands of milled rope twist between a plain deep torus moulding on a plain foot. A group of rare pieces are these pale blue glazes, among which are a number painted with designs in blue and red, which in France were often dressed in gilt-bronze mounts of the highest quality.

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