A FINE BLUE AND WHITE HEXAGONAL VASE China, Qianlong seal mark, 18th/ 19th ct. H. 70 cm Of hexagonal section, supported on a splayed foot, set with a waisted trumpet neck of conforming section, the sides well painted in brilliant tones of cobalt blue with simulated 'heaping and piling' with boughs of pomegranate, peach and persimmon alternating with flowering branches, decorated with spandrels painted as spiky lotus scrolls, springing from linked trefoils encircling the base and pendant ruyi border around the shoulder, the neck and foot similarly painted with floral sprays divided by matching spandrels, the countersunk base inscribed in underglaze blue with a six-character reign mark. Old European private collection, acquired prior to 1990 Vases of this type are impressive for their large yet elegant form which is finely decorated in attractive clusters of scrolling motifs. The design was first produced in the Yongzheng period (1723-1735) and became one of the the most favoured designs of all the large blue and white vases made for the palaces. A closely related example in the Nanjing Museum is illustrated in The Official Kiln Porcelain of the Chinese Qing Dynasty, Shanghai, 2003, pl. 212; one is published in Selected Masterpieces of the Matsuoka Museum of Art, Tokyo, 1975, pl. 102; another, sold at Sotheby's London, 20.5.1981, lot 764, is included in Geng Baochang, ming Qing ciqi jianding, Hong Kong, 1993, p. 274, pl. 469; and a fourth example, sold at Christie's Hong Kong, 27th April 1998, lot 724, is published in Julian Thompson, The Alan Chuang Collection of Chinese Porcelain, Hong Kong, 2009, pl. 36. A pair of vases, from the collection of General Field Marshall Alfred, Count von Waldersee, was sold at Sotheby's London, 12.5.2006, lot 116. Very few glaze frits to edges