Kangxi-mark painted enamel ‘Peach and Bat’ vase

Painted enamel skips the wire. Enamel paste is brushed straight onto a metal body and fired, so the surface can carry a picture as freely as porcelain carries one. The Kangxi court learned the method from Europe and made it its own.

This vase pairs peaches with bats, and the pun is the point. Peach means long life, bat, fu, means fortune, so the design is a written wish, prosperity and years, set down in enamel.

Kangxi painted enamel is rarer and a little experimental, the workshop still learning the European firing schedules. That slight uncertainty gives the early pieces a directness the later, perfect Qianlong wares sometimes lack.

A vase that spells out its own blessing is not subtle. The Kangxi court did not always want subtlety, only longevity, loudly.

Image © The Palace Museum. View the original in the Palace Museum collection.