Large Vase with Long, Straight, Cylindrical Neck and with Decoration of Blossoming and Fruiting Peach Branches

By the early eighteenth century, potters at Jingdezhen, in Jiangxi province, had learned to prepare opaque colors through the addition of tin oxide to the enamel-glaze compound. (Except for red enamel, which is naturally opaque, enamels on earlier porcelains are all transparent.) Opaque enamels allowed ceramic painters to create gradations in color, which enabled them to suggest the effects of light and shade and to impart a sense of roundness and volume to the objects depicted. Such gradations of color are most apparent here in the peaches. A symbol of longevity, the peach was considered an especially appropriate motif for display during birthday and New Year's celebrations.