Yongzheng period circa 1735
European or Chinese Market
Height: 6¾ inches; 17cm
with inventory label 'X 66'

Priced in GB pounds sterling 
£10,000
This item is located in the UK. Shipping from there is at the buyer's expense.

A very rare Chinese porcelain beaker vase painted in famille rose enamels with two European men in conversation, the reverse with a blue rock and foliage.

This is a rare example of such an early type of European subject vase. The style is similar to some of the albums of European figures made for the Imperial court (see three examples illustrated, right) and this could have been made as a curiosity for the Chinese market. The shape is unusual and the sparse decoration lacking any borders would have appealed to Chinese taste at this time.

Provenance: The Reginald and Lena Palmer Collection, listed in the Christie's probate valuation of 1970 and assigned reference number (X) 66 on the death of Lena Florence Palmer in 1981, when it was accepted by HMRC as being of pre-eminent quality and of outstanding national importance.
Reginald Palmer of Hurst Grove, Berkshire, was Chairman of the Palmer and Huntley Biscuit Company in Reading, England, who acquired a substantial and important collection of Chinese ceramics and works of art in the 1920s and 1930s.