QIANLONG-JIAQING PERIOD (1736-1820)

Details

A RARE MASSIVE FAMILLE ROSE SGRAFFIATO RUBY-GROUND 'HUNDRED BOYS' VASE
QIANLONG-JIAQING PERIOD (1736-1820)
The vase is finely decorated on either side with scenes of boys at play in a garden, enclosed within shaped panels decorated with bats and all reserved on a sgraffiato ruby-enameled ground interspersed with lotus and other leafy floral sprays between borders of ruyi heads above and key-fret below. The waisted neck is decorated with bats suspending chimes and lotus blossoms suspending endless knots and twin fish, and is flanked by a pair of molded kui-dragon handles.
30 1/8 in. (76.5 cm.) high

Provenance

Private collection, Europe.
The Lenora and Walter F. Brown Collection, San Antonio, Texas.

Brought to you by

Olivia Hamilton

asianartny@christies.com 212-636-2180

Lot Essay

A famille rose vase, also of impressively large size (31 in. high), dated to the 18th century, Qianlong period, in The Metropolitan Museum of Art, is illustrated by S. Valenstein, A Handbook of Chinese Ceramics, New York, 1975, pl. 168. Like the present vase, it is decorated with figural scenes within panels on the body, with further panels on the neck flanked by dragon handles. Although the ground on which the panels are reserved is decorated with mille fleurs, it can nevertheless be related to the present vase for its overall effect of rich ornamentation and impressive detail. A Qianlong-marked famille rose vase of similar shape and comparable size (27 ¾ in.) but on a turquoise ground from the Marchant collection was sold in Marchant: Nine Decades in Chinese Art; 14 September 2017, lot 748.

For a discussion of boys at play, see the note to lot 1616 in the present catalogue.

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