LATE QING DYNASTY

Details

A DEHUA HEHE ERXIAN GROUP
LATE QING DYNASTY
The twins are shown facing and laughing with one another. The standing twin is wearing loose robes open at the chest to reveal a ruyi-form necklace, holding in his right hand a large plantain leaf draping over his shoulders. The other twin seated beside him with robes open at the chest to reveal a similar necklace, with long hair trailing down his back and a bald patch on the top of his head, holding a half-opened basket in his right hand to reveal a bat, with a further bat rests on the cover of the basket. The back of the group is impressed with a four-character seal mark reading He Chaozong yin.
10 7/8 in. (27.8 cm.) high

Provenance

An American private collection
Sold at Christie’s Hong Kong, 1 June 2011, lot 3725

Conditions of sale

Brought to you by

Marco Almeida (安偉達) SVP, Senior International Specialist, Head of Department & Head of Private Sales

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Lot Essay

The Hehe Erxian, or the Two Immortals of Harmony and Unity, were believed to preside over happy marriages, and are adaptations of two famous poet-monks of the Tang dynasty, Hanshan and Shide. During the Ming and Qing dynasties, the twins were usually depicted holding a box, he, and a lotus stem. The homophone he provides a rebus for harmony.

Compare a very similar Dehua group with a Xu Yunlin seal mark in the Hong Kong Museum of Art, included in the exhibition, The Wonders of the Potter's Palette, Hong Kong Museum of Art and illustrated in the Catalogue, no. 141. A slightly larger group was sold at Christie's Hong Kong, 1 December 2010, lot 2811.

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