A RARE PARCEL-GILT BRONZE ‘SHOU’ JAR, POU

LATE MING-EARLY QING PERIOD

Details

A RARE PARCEL-GILT BRONZE ‘SHOU’ JAR, POU
LATE MING-EARLY QING PERIOD
The globular body is decorated in gilt and relief with one hundred and twenty-eight shou characters rendered in different forms of seal
script, all against a fish-roe punched ground, below an archaistic wavy border on the neck and a key-fret band on the galleried mouth rim. The shoulders are set with a pair of ring handles supporting taotie masks.
7 in. (17.8 cm) high, box, zitan cover with carnelian agate finial

Provenance

Sold at Sotheby’s Hong Kong, 8th October 2006, lot 1154
Sold at Sotheby’s New York, 20 March 2012, lot 73

Sale room notice

Please note that the current lot is accompanied by a zitan cover with a carnelian agate finial

Brought to you by

Sibley Ngai

sngai@christies.com +852 2978 9955

Lot Essay

The motif of multiple shou (longevity) characters on this jar conveys the auspicious message ‘countless years of long life without limit’. During the Kangxi period, a small group of massive blue and white ‘wanshou’ porcelain vases was made at the Imperial kilns in Jingdezhen, on which 9999 shou characters and a single wan character were inscribed, suggesting they may have been made as Imperial birthday presents. One such example of a Kangxi blue and white wanshou vase was sold at Christie’s Hong Kong, 27 November 2013, lot 3419.

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