A Chinese porcelain vase with English gilt-bronze mounts, bottle-shaped, with ribbed body and everted foot, the rounded shoulder tapering into a tall, ribbed neck with cupped mouth. The glaze is heavily flecked with blue, probably due to the addition of cobalt. The top is fitted with a shallow gilt-bronze cup, with a plain disc base with beaded rim, to which are attached a pair of tall, flat, angular handles, with a slight bow in their profile. The handles are attached to the rim by two screws each and terminate at the shoulder below in satyr’s heads, which rest against the body of the vase. The foot is set in a waisted gilt bronze base, with a weave-pattern upper moulding and beaded lower-edge moulding, on a square plain plinth with an oak block fixed within it.

The gilt-bronze mounts are English, although no invoice for the mounting of this vase has been traced, based on close similarities with work by the Vulliamys for George IV, the mounts were almost certainly supplied under the direction of the Vulliamys (see RCINs 185, 2346.1-2 and 3555).

While the rare copper-red glazes of the early Ming period underwent a revival at the court of Kangxi (1662–1722), the period is better known in the West for its creation of the strikingly brilliant sang-de-boeuf wares. These are subject to uneven effects of colour owing to the fugitive quality inherent in the medium. Later in the eighteenth century, it resulted also in the making of flambé wares with purplish markings, which are at times due to the deliberate addition of cobalt blue.

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