Pair, 19th Century Chinese Clobbered Rose Medallion Bottle Vases

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This is a pair of finely enameled Chinese porcelain vases, likely produced in the late Qing Dynasty, circa late 19th … Read more This is a pair of finely enameled Chinese porcelain vases, likely produced in the late Qing Dynasty, circa late 19th century, in the famille rose palette with additional gilt embellishment. Each vase is of elongated bottle form with a slender, cylindrical neck rising above a compressed globular body, and stands unmarked with a recessed and unglazed footrim, showing the soft creamy glaze and minor pitting characteristic of hand-thrown wares of this period.

The decoration is a complex and lively composition rendered in famille rose enamels and enriched with profuse gilding. One side features qilin or fu-lion-like mythical beasts in motion amid auspicious Buddhist and Daoist emblems, butterflies, ribbon-tied roundels, and large flowering peonies—all symbols connoting protection, prosperity, and harmony. The opposing sides are adorned with richly gilded vignettes of riverine landscape scenes, depicting traditional Chinese architecture nestled among stylized pine trees and jagged mountains. These landscape segments, highlighted in lustrous gilt and over a deep cobalt wash, show wear consistent with age and handling. The necks are bordered with alternating floral bands and petal lappets, with the gilt-decorated rim areas bearing stylized spiral roundels. The lower body is bordered by a lotus-scroll band rendered in green and black over pale ochre.

The lavishly painted surfaces exhibit the Qing aesthetic emphasis on polychromy and auspicious symbolism, but the unusually elongated neck and compressed form also point toward export ware innovation and possible Guangdong or Cantonese enamel workshop origins. While the technique and motifs align with traditional famille rose decoration developed in the early 18th century under the Yongzheng and Qianlong emperors, this pair’s pictorial storytelling and density of symbolic elements—combined with their gilt landscape ornamentation—strongly situate them in the context of 19th-century decorative production, when porcelain was often made with both domestic and European collectors in mind.

Measures: 7" h x 3.25" w. See less