A VERY RARE AND FINE COPPER-RED DOUBLE-GOURD VASEKangxiThe upper globular bulb rising to a short neck, supported on a larger similarly-shapedpressed spherical bulb, elegantly painted with gourd flowers and attendant fruits amidst curling tendrils, the veining of the petals and leaves lightly incised in the body, the copper-red of an even bright burgundy tone, the countersunk base unglazed, wood stand, fitted box.18cm (7 1/8in) highProvenance: 清康熙 釉裏紅福祿連綿葫蘆瓶Provenance:Mrs Alfred Clark (1890-1976), LondonSotheby's London, Important Ming Porcelain, 24 March 1953, lot 27J.T. Tai & Co., New YorkSotheby's Hong Kong, Masterpieces of Qing Imperial Porcelain from J.T. Tai & Co., 7 October 2010, lot 2133The Robert Chang Collection, Hong Kong來源：倫敦艾弗瑞．克拉克夫人（1890-1976）舊藏倫敦蘇富比，《明代陶瓷珍藏》，1953年3月24日，拍品27紐約戴潤齋珍藏香港蘇富比，《彩華騰瑞──戴潤齋清宮御瓷珍藏》專場，2010年10月7日，拍品2133香港張宗憲先生珍藏The present lot was one of the eleven lots purchased by J.T. Tai on his first buying trip, after moving to New York from Hong Kong, to Paris and London at Sotheby's London from the collection of Mrs. Alfred Clark.Gourd-shaped vases with this design of flowering and fruiting gourd vines are known both painted in underglaze-red and underglaze-blue. Underglaze-red decoration, after having been mastered in the Yongle and Xuande period, was almostpletely discontinued thereafter, but revived again in the 1670s of the Kangxi period. The countersunk base feature and the patterns on the vase, which are painted in a particularly beautiful soft style, are together a strongly reminiscent of early Ming porcelain.An identical vase painted in underglaze-blue is attributed to the Jiajing period by Geng Baochang, ed., Gugong Bowuyuan cang gu taoci ziliao xuancui [Selection of ancient ceramic material from the Palace Museum], Beijing, 2005, vol.1, pl.146; another blue-painted piece from the collection of Mr and Mrs Walter Sedgwick is published by William Bowyer Honey, The Ceramic Art of China and Other Countries of the Far East, London, 1945, pl.95(b) as Zhengde period; and one in the British Museum, London, is included among the Xuande wares by Jessica Harrison-Hall, Ming Ceramics in the British Museum, London, 2001, no.4: 18 (fig.1).See a related Kangxi blue and white vase in the Palace Museum Collection, acc.no. Gu00157588 and a blue and white double-gourd vase with 'squirrel and grapes' decoration, illustrated by Geng Baochang, ed., Gugong bowuyuan cang qingdai yuyao ciqi [The Collection of the Palace Museum. Porcelains from the Official Kilns in the Qing Dynasty], vol.1, Beijing, 2005, pl.46. The same design continues to the succeeding Yongzheng and Qianlong period, see in the Qing Court Collection two Yongzheng double-gourd vases inspired by the Jiajing period prototype, illustrated in The Palace Museum's Collection of Blue and White Porcelains from Yongzheng Period of Qing Dynasty, Beijing, 2017, nos.129-130; and a Qianlong blue and white double-gourd vase decorated