Vase with Lions and Bats in Panels

The soft-paste porcelain of this vase is painted and incised with two foliated panels on a faintly crackled ground. Inside one panel, a lion-dog is seated with head facing towards a pine tree that provides the beast shade. Mossy rock formations also appear in the panels. The panel on the opposite side is filled with a second lion-dog standing beside more mossy rocks and lingzhi, a sacred fungus symbolic of immortality. Bats, symbols of happiness, fly above each lion. The surrounding ground of fish roe pattern is filled with white flower sprays, butterflies, and bats that are molded in the paste of the porcelain. Along the lip of the vase is a band of octagons filled with dotted circles. The vase has straight sides that tapper towards a round flat foot and slanted shoulders that hold a short wide neck.