The Cleveland Museum of Art
Collection Online as of December 19, 2025
Bottle-Shaped Vase
1796–1820
(1644–1911), Jiaqing reign (1796–1820)
Overall: 30.8 cm (12 1/8 in.)
Location: 240A Chinese Paintings and Calligraphy
Did You Know?
Porcelain with this dense floral millefleurs decoration and a multitude of overglaze enamel colors was first made in the Qing dynasty and remained popular into the late 1800s.Description
This vase is densely decorated with peonies, morning glories, lilies, and lotuses. Purple, yellow, and blue petals fill the surface, forming a continuous millefleur (thousand-flower) pattern. Each petal is delicately shaded to suggest volume and depth, creating a vivid yet orderly composition. The mouth is painted with gold pigment to imitate metal, evoking the appearance of copper-body-painted enamel as seen in Qing dynasty court art. Qing palace records indicate that vases with such patterns were used in everyday flower-viewing displays. In late Qing inventories, comparable examples were listed as furnishings for the emperor and his consorts.- ?–1944Elisabeth Severance Allen Prentiss [1865–1944], Cleveland Heights, OH, bequest to the Cleveland Museum of Art1944–The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
- Catalogue of the Elisabeth Severance Prentiss collection : bequest of Elisabeth Severance Prentiss, 1944. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1944. Mentioned: p. 84 archive.org
- A Myriad of Flowers and Birds in Chinese Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (November 16, 2025-May 24, 2026).Stories from Storage. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (February 7-May 16, 2021).
- {{cite web|title=Bottle-Shaped Vase|url=false|author=|year=1796–1820|access-date=19 December 2025|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}
Source URL:
https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1944.151