KANGXI PORCELAIN

Of elegant  slender baluster form, the rounded foot sweeping up to a wide shoulder, the tall galleried cylindrical neck in two registers with a raised central ridge, painted in brilliant hues of cobalt blue, the body with four tall panels, alternately enclosing a landscape scenes and scenes of birds among flowers, each landscape scene with a solitary figure seated beside a tiled pavilion on a rocky promontory, surrounded by soaring mountains and tall gnarled pine, in one panel the sun hangs in the sky overhead, in the other, a pagoda nestles in the mountainside, one floral panel with a pair of songbirds among abundant apple blossom and bamboo, the other with a further pair of songbirds among peony, the lower register of the body with two bands of moulded and raised overlapping petal-shaped panels enclosing lotus and peony blooms, the shoulder with raised pendant lotus petal panels, each enclosing a flower, alternately lotus, prunus, and peony, the neck with two registers divided by a central raised band, each decorated with a continuous landscape scene, the lower register with craggy rocks, a river, and a low-hanging moon, the upper register with a lone robed figure seated beside a river, a small shelter nearby, the domed cover with a knop finial, further decorated with a watery landscape scene, with a punt boat, two figures beside the waterline, and a further figure within a tiled dwelling, the base glazed.