Artist: Yutian 雨田

Material: Porcelain, imperial yellow glaze, famille rose mineral pigments

Technique: Famille rose (粉彩) overglaze, relief application

Height: 30 cm Diameter: 15 cm The Yaolingzun (bell vase) takes its name from its resemblance to a hand bell: small mouth, long neck, full shoulder, tapering base. The form was fashionable from the Kangxi through Qianlong reigns and served principally as a scholar's study ornament.

This vase is finished in imperial yellow, the colour reserved exclusively for the Qing court. No subject of the empire could possess a yellow-ground vessel. It was sovereignty expressed as colour.

Dense famille rose floral scrollwork covers the surface. Purple, pink, blue, and green blossoms wind through layered foliage, each petal built up in relief so that the surface has a tactile quality, catching light unevenly across its curves. The composition represents the aesthetic of the Qianlong era at its most confident: unrestrained, sumptuous, and deeply rooted in the court tradition that made Jingdezhen the centre of world porcelain production for seven hundred years.