AS80
Of flattened baluster form, finely and brightly painted on two sides with a double-headed eagle carrying a spray of peony between an embossed lappet of tree peony and stylised rockwork, the other two panels each with a rectangular panel enclosing blossoming trees on a blue floral ground.
Literature
See Chinese Export Art in the Hermitage Museum, Late 16th -19th centuries, p.80, pl.94 for an almost identical example.
In Reflexos: símbolos e imagens do Cristianismo na porcelana chinesa: exposição Museu da São Roque ('Reflections: symbols and images of Christianity on Chinese porcelain: exhibition, Museu da São Roque') Maria Antónia Pinto de Matos suggests that the double-headed eagle is the motif belonging to the ancient order of Saint Agostinho. See p.115, pl.50 for a teacup from the Kangxi reign bearing the same motif. Compare also with a vase illustrated in Nuno de Castro, A Porcelana Chinesa e os Brasoes do Imperio, 1987, p.29, fig. 85; and a hexagonal vase illustrated in J. McClure Mudge, Chinese Export Porcelain in North America, 1986, p. 47, pl 50, belonging to a private collection. A similar vase belongs to the collection of the National Museum of Ancient Art, Lisbon.
