The Qian Long vase

Below are pictures of the vase which has been passed down by my great-grandfather.

Height 60cm,
middle circumference  32 cm,
base circumference 24 cm
neck circumference 15.5 cm

Here's some interesting news about Imperial Porcelain with poems.

I wonder whether our piece belongs to this?

http://www.ocs-london.com/news.htm

Sotheby’s/OCS lecture

* Venue: Sotheby’s, 34-35 New Bond Street, London W1 *

Time: 5:00 p.m. Tea/coffee 4:30 – 5:00 p.m. Lecture 5:00 – 6:15 p.m.

Yu Pei-chin

Porcelain with Imperial poems by Emperor Qianlong: Looking at the Problem of Imitating Antiquity at Official Kilns from the Imperial Poetry of the Qianlong Emperor on Porcelains

An investigation into the study of imitating antiquity at the official kilns under the Qianlong Emperor involves not just comparison with ancient vessels of similar form and glaze. If we are able to look further at various porcelains from the connoisseurial viewpoint of the Qianlong Emperor to consider the meaning of imitating antiquity, we can then look upon his imperial poetry in the same way as collection seals and inscriptions. From his poetry, on the one hand, we are able to understand the Qianlong Emperor’s view with regard to a particular kind of porcelain and, on the other hand, we can trace the relationship between imitating antiquity and imperial taste and connoisseurship from the porcelains of the Qianlong official kilns and the imitation firing of that particular kind of porcelain.

There are approximately 130 porcelains inscribed with imperial poetry of the Qianlong Emperor. These works with engraved poetry are mostly from the Ru kilns of the Northern Song along with official and official-type wares of the Southern Song kilns. From these objects it can be discerned that the Qianlong Emperor not only desired to trace back and institute an ideal example for official kilns, as seen in the poetry on these porcelains representing official kilns of the Song dynasty. At the same time, this ideal example of official kilns is exactly as indicated in the imperial poetry on four Ru porcelains (one in the National Palace Museum collection, one in the Hong Kong Museum of Art, and two in the British Museum): “But this method is not used at Jingde(zhen), also producing its own precious floating blue hue.” The Qianlong Emperor probably used this to exhort the firing of official wares under his guidance to rival or even surpass the beauty of Song porcelains.

This lecture will focus on Qianlong official wares and similar porcelains with imperial poetry, along with some works probably produced in the eighteenth century, to examine what appears to be the paradoxical and confusing relationship and phenomenon of engraved imperial poetry and others, offering a direction for the study of imitating antiquity at the Qianlong imperial kilns.

Yu Peichin is Curator of the Department of Antiquities at the National Palace Museum, Taiwan. She has previously organized a number of special exhibitions, including on Yongzheng (2009), Northern Song Ru Ware (2006), and Qianlong (2002) for the museum. She has published widely on the subject of ceramics in China. Her recent publications include Chinese ceramics under the Yongzheng and Qianlong Emperors, Ru ware and Jun ware collections of the National Palace Museum. She is now organizing a special exhibition, “Porcelain with Imperial poems by Emperor Qianlong from the collections of the National Palace Museum”, which will open on November 2011, and this lecture is related to the exhibition.