the main body rising from a stepped splayed foot to a broad angled shoulder, all surmounted by a tall neck and flared rim, finely painted overall in rich cobalt-blue tones accentuated with simulated 'heaping and piling', one side with a lobed cartouche enclosing a dedicatory inscription dated to the 5th month of the 6th year of the Qianlong period (in accordance with 1741), delineating that it is made as an offering for the Temple of the King of Mount Tai outside Chaoyangmen, surrounded by lotus blooms borne on dense scrolling leafy stems, the reverse decorated with a large lotus blossom enclosing a central shou medallion, all above an upright ruyi border and below a pendent lappet frieze collaring the sloping shoulder, the trumpet neck densely painted with large lotus blooms borne on undulating leafy scrolls, between a classic scroll at the mouth-rim and a band of stylised plantain leaves rising from the collar, all supported on a stepped splayed base further divided into registers of floral and foliate borders above a frieze of undulating lines encircling the foot