Four jars and covers

Four ovoid jars, with tapering sides, projecting foot and straight neck; the cover a high dome with projecting rim, with knob in the form of a red lion on a black rock. Round the sides are painted panels with a gilt spotted lion frolicking among peonies and rocks, alternating with panels of chrysanthemums and other flowers, and in between, cameos with blooms on a gilt-painted blue or red ground. Below the shoulder is a narrow border of scrollwork reserved on black, with four pendent lappets with lotus blooms in red on black encroaching on the panels, and at the foot, a foliate scroll border in blue. In a broad band round the shoulder, in a blue ground overpainted with gilt foliage and with chrysanthemum cameos, are four quatrefoil panels with designs in red and gold, showing, alternately, a figure viewing the landscape or a spray of paulownia. Round the neck are cartouches, alternately with butterflies and blooms. The cover repeats the shoulder designs. On the cover of 193.1, the knob has been refixed with a metal plate inside. The base is filled with a wooden plaque, and no doubt the vase was adapted as a candelabrum. The associated beakers (RCIN 604) are cylindrical, with a trumpet mouth and spreading foot, decorated to match the jar; the base pierced, no doubt for use as a lamp.

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