An Exhibition of Important Chinese Ceramics from the Robert Chang Collection, Christie's London, 1993, cat. no. 64.

《雲海閣重要中國古代陶瓷·張宗憲珍藏展》，倫敦佳士得，1993年，編號64

Conjoined vases incorporating sections 🌄of two or more shapes to create a single vessel were among the most technically cha꧅llenging wares produced by the imperial kilns during the Yongzheng period. This type of double vase, finely potted with two bottle-shaped vases with conjoined spherical bodies surmounted by two slender necks, albeit rare, is recorded in two different sizes. 

The present vase belongs to the taller group, measuring approximately 12 cm in height; another now preserved in the Taipei Palace Museum is published in Illustrated Catalogue of Ch'ing Dynasty Porcelain in the Palace Museum, vol. 1, Taipei, 1980, pl. 135. See also a slightly smaller example (h. 10.2 cm) from the collections of Madame Maurice Solvay and Paul and Helen Bernat, sold in these rooms, 15th November 1988, lot 65; and sold again at Christie's Hong Kong, 31st October 2000, lot 825 from the collection of Robert Chang. Compare a Yongzheng period lavender-glazed example from the Grandidier Collection, now in the Musee Guimet, Paris, illustrated in Oriental Ceramics. The World's Great Collections, vol. 7, Tokyo, 1981, pl. 168.

This type of conjoined vase continued to be produced in the Qianlong period. For example, see a celadon-glazed double vase from the Chang Foundation (h. 12.5 cm), now also in the Alan Chuang Collection and illustrated in Julian Thompson, op.cit., pl. 72. It is worth noting that, instead of a single horizontal mark below the rim, the Qianlong version is🔜 inscribed with two four-character seal marks on the base.