Straits Chinese or Nonya Porcelain

Famille Rose Green-Ground Baluster Vase

This baluster vase has excellent, clear provenance that dates to the 1940s, when it was acquired by an English family in Malacca.

The vase is brightly enamelled with shaped panels containing a single phoenix standing amid sprays of pink and blue peony blooms and foliage against a pink background, surrounded by a green-ground decorated with further pink and blue peony blooms and foliage. The neck and shoulder have moulded felines with green bodies and dragons in pink, as well as cartouches with a single peony bloom against a pink background. The lower part of the base has a border of brightly coloured pale green lappets, and a further pale green border is just beneath the rim, which has gilt edging.

The base has a

Zhanfuxing Zao factory mark in red enamel.

Vases were not used in the Straits Chinese house to decorate rooms with bunches of cut flowers. Instead, pairs of baluster vases such as the example here were used on the family altar to hold flowers – usually freshly-cut chrysanthemums – meant as offerings to the gods and the spirits of the departed. They were placed on the altar with other religious objects.

Acquired in the UK from an English family from the south-west of England that was involved in managing a rubber plantation near Malacca in the 1940s.