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Pair of Vases
From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art. Free to download, adapt and use — no permission needed.
About this work
This spectacular vase, one of a pair in the collection, depicts flowering and fruiting peach trees to convey an auspicious message of affluence and long life. Developments in enamel technology led to new possibilities in polychrome decoration of Qing imperial porcelains. Pinks appeared, lending their name to the new palette of overglaze colors (famille rose), and the addition of opaque white allowed painters to vary the value of pigments, enhancing the painterly quality of porcelain decoration.
Cleveland Museum of Art’s own descriptionCredit linePair of Vases (粉彩桃紋瓷瓶), 1736–95. China, Jiangxi province, Jingdezhen, Qing dynasty (1644-1911), Qianlong mark and period (1736-1795). Porcelain with famille rose overglaze enamel decoration; overall: 51.4 cm (20 1/4 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Elisabeth Severance Prentiss Collection, 1944.184
