The impressive form of this vase is an adaptation of archaic ritual bronze vessels, intended for use during ancestor worship ceremonies. Features like the angular ridge separating a concave neck from a convex body can already be traced to vessels of zun shape and tubular handles to vessels of hu form from the end of the Shang dynasty in the late 2nd millennium BC. This reference to archaic forms would have been much appreciated by the Qianlong Emperor who was a great connoisseur and a keen collects or of archaic pieces.

Further reference to China's celebrated past is seen in the intricately painted floral scrolls which were inspired by Ming dynasty blue and white porcelain of the early 15th century. Painted in a brilliant deep cobalt blue, which reflects the high level of technical achievement by Qing craft.mes n, Qing painters employed a stippled effect to simulate the accidental unevenness known as 'heaping and piling' typically found on early Ming pieces.

Large vases of related form, but with a narrow cylindrical neck and without foot were already produced during the Yongzheng reign. A Yongzheng vase in the Palace Museum, Beijing, is illustrated in Qingdai yuyao ciqi [Qing imperial porcelain], vol. 1, pt. II, Beijing, 2005, pl. 178. This Yongzheng form was also copied rather closely in the Qianlong period; compare two such vases in the Palace Museum, Beijing, one decorated with lotus flowers, the other with Ming-style flower scrolls and other motifs, illustrated in The Complete collects ion of Treasures of the Palace Museum. Blue and White Porcelain with Underglazed Red, Shanghai, 2000, vol. 3, pls 130 and 131.

A similar vase from the collects ion of Sir Ralph Harwood, K.C.B., K.C.V.O., at one t.mes Financial Secretary to King George V and Controller of the Royal Household, and believed to have been presented to him by Queen Mary, out of the Royal collects ions at Windsor Castle, was sold in our London rooms, 7th June 1994, lot 358. Another example, sold in these rooms, 16th May 1977, lot 90, is now in the Hong Kong Museum of Art, included in the Museum's exhibition The Wonders of the Potter's Palette, Hong Kong Museum of Art, Hong Kong, 1984, cat. no. 63. A further example was sold in these rooms, 3rd April 2019, lot 3633; and another was sold in our Paris rooms, 18th June 2020, lot 12.

此壺形制恢宏，取形晚商吉金禮器，既傚銅尊，添設貫耳，又仿古壺，正合高宗慕古之好。論紋飾，卻襲明代青花纏枝花紋，妙仿鐵斑，更顯匠心。

形制相類且魁碩之器，雍正一朝早已有之，然頸較纖，無足。參考北京故宮博物院藏雍正例，錄於《清代御窰瓷器》，卷1下，北京，2005年，圖版178。此雍正器形於乾隆朝仍有沿用，北京故宮博物院藏有二例，錄於《故宮博物院藏文物珍品大系・青花釉裏紅（下）》，上海，2000年，圖版130及131。

英王喬治五世之財務大臣兼皇室內務總管 Ralph Harwood K.C.B., K.CV.O. 爵士舊藏一例，與此相似，據傳原屬温莎城堡皇家收藏，由瑪麗皇后賜贈，後售於倫敦蘇富比1994年6月7日，編號358。香港蘇富比1977年5月16日拍出一例，編號90，現藏香港藝術館，曾展於該館《清瓷薈錦：香港藝術館藏清代陶瓷》，香港，1984年，編號63。另見兩例，分別售於香港蘇富比2019年4月3日，編號3633，以及巴黎蘇富比2020年6月18日，編號12。