A RARE MASSIVE FAMILLE ROSE RUBY-GROUND VASE

THE PROPERTY OF A GENTLEMAN

Details

A RARE MASSIVE FAMILLE ROSE RUBY-GROUND VASE
QIANLONG IRON-RED SIX-CHARACTER SEALMARK AND OF THE PERIOD (1736-1795)

Finely painted in enamels of bright tones with two gilt-bordered quatrefoil cartouches on each side of the ovoid body, one with a pair of colourful phoenix perched on ornamental rockwork amidst large peony and chrysanthemum blossoms, and a wide variety of bird species in a garden setting, the other panel decorated with a flock of magpies in flight or perched on two branches of flowering prunus growing beside large iron-red mallows, the panels surrounded by rich ruby-red graviata ground embellished with colourful stylised floral scrolls interlinked with paired chilong and bats, and gilt Shou symbols on each side of the broad waisted neck applied with a pair of gilt dragon handles, the interior and base with turquoise enamel (enamel losses, a number retouched)
29 3/4 in. (75.5 cm.) high, box

Provenance

Collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (by repute)

Literature

Sotheby's Thirty Years in Hong Kong, Hong Kong, 2003, pl. 346

Exhibited

The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1958

Lot Essay

Previously sold in our New York Rooms, 23 June 1983, lot 199; at Sotheby's Hong Kong, 22 May 1985, lot 162, and again, 27 April 2003, lot 42.

No other vase of this design appears to be recorded. The decoration of a flock of magpies flying or resting on two branches of blossoming prunus - a brown branch with pink flowers, and a grey branch with white flowers - can be seen on a large hu-shaped vase in the Palace Museum, Beijing, illustrated in Falangcai, Fencai - The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum, Hong Kong, 1999, pl. 88; while the composition of paired phoenix among peonies and egrets, as seen on the present vase, is also found on a Yongzheng-marked 'Guyuexuan' bowl in the National Palace Museum, Taiwan, illustrated in Sekai Toji Zenshu, Shogakukan series, vol. 15, Japan, 1983, pl. 47.

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