The speckled blue surface of of this vase, called ‘powder blue’, was created by blowing cobalt blue through a bamboo tube onto unfired porcelain, a technique that was perfected in the Kangxi period. On some vessels, specially shaped resists were used to create blank areas, which were subsequently painted with overglaze enamels (powdered glass) and then fired a second time. An additional firing fixed gilded designs onto the surface of the blue ground, both on objects with enamelled panels and those without.
