The vase has an open mouth, a straight neck, a slanting shoulder, a plump body and a rounded base. The inner wall of the vase is white glazed, and blue-and-white under-glazed red flowers and butterflies are painted against the white background on the outer wall; the glazed surface is crystal and delicate, the blue-and-white under-glazed red color is pure and authentic, and the design of butterflies clustering around flowers conveys full natural pleasure. The mouth rim is decorated with a circle of inverted Ru-yi patterns and the base rim a circle of banana leaf patterns. The glaze on the rounded base is scrapped off, without any inscription.
Blue-and-white and under-glazed red are both high-temperature under-glazed colors, but are of different natures and require different atmospheres in the kiln. It is not easy when both glazes are applied on the same ware to show both colors, i.e. red and blue, pure and steady. Blue-and-white under-glazed red can be dated back to Yuan Dynasty, and production of this type of glaze existed as well in the early-to-mid period of Ming Dynasty, but there were not many wares of pure color produced until Yongzheng Period in Qing Dynasty when firing technology of this type of glaze matured. During Qianlong Period, the color of blue-and-white under-glazed red wares was fairly steady, with darker and lighter parts mutually complementing in a harmonious manner, and the painted birds, flowers and leaves looked more lifelike.
