A peachbloom-glazed beehive waterpot, mark and period of Kangxi (1662-1722)

with slightly tapering sides rising from a countersunk base to a rounded shoulder surmounted by a short neck and lipped mouth-rim, the exterior applied overall save for the rim and base with a crimson-red glaze characteristically mottled with pink sprinkles imitating the skin of a ripening peach, the body further incised with three stylised archaistic chilong roundels, the white base inscribed in underglaze blue with a six-character reign mark in three columns.

Note: Waterpots of this glaze and form are preserved in important museums and collections around the world, including one in the Palace Museum, Beijing, published in Kangxi. Yongzheng. Qianlong. Qing Porcelain from the Palace Museum Collection, Hong Kong, 1989, p. 142, pl. 125; one in the Shanghai Museum, illustrated in Kangxi Porcelain Wares from the Shanghai Museum Collection, Hong Kong, 1998, pl. 206; another in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, included in Suzanne G. Valenstein, A Handbook of Chinese Ceramics, New York, 1989, p. 237; and a fourth example from the Sir Percival David collection and now in the British Museum, London, published in Illustrated Catalogue of Ming and Qing Wares, London, 1989, pl. 580, and also illustrated on the front cover. 

The Tang dynasty poet Li Bai (701-762), known as a notorious drinker, is often depicted leaning against a wine jar of this form, for example, in a porcelain sculpture of the same period which shows the poet seated with closed eyes and a cup in hand, illustrated in Kangxi. Yongzheng. Qianlong. Qing Porcelain from the Palace Museum Collection, op. cit., p. 106, pl. 89.