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Lot Essay
The combination of gourds and butterflies constitutes a rebus for 'numerous descendants'.
Two very similar painted enamel vases, both in size and decoration, have been published: one in the Fairhaven Collection, Anglesey Abbey, Cambridgeshire, illustrated by R. Soame Jenyns and W. Watson in Chinese Art II, New York, 1980, p. 152, pl. 111, subsequently sold at Christie's Hong Kong, 29 October 1995, lot 629, and now in the collection of the Hong Kong Museum of Art; the other in the exhibition catalogue, Chinese Works of Art and Snuff Bottles, The Chinese Porcelain Company, New York, June 1994, no. 25. Two much smaller (11.6 and 16.5 cm.) painted enamel double-gourd vases decorated in a similar style and each bearing a Qianlong seal mark have also been published. One in the Beijing Palace Museum is illustrated in Zhongguo Meishu Quanji, vol. 10, Gold, Silver, Glass and Enamels, Beijing, 1987, p. 191, no. 342, and p. 105, where the vase is described as being a product of the Yangxindian Palace workshop. The other in the collection of Mrs. Alfred Clarke is illustrated in the catalogue for the O.C.S. exhibition, The Arts of the Ch'ing Dynasty, London, 1964, pl. 109, no. 340. Like the present vase they both have a yellow ground finely stippled in red, but the similar gourd vines are more widely spaced and the two leaf-shaped panels enclose only a spray of flower stems and a butterfly.
Two very similar painted enamel vases, both in size and decoration, have been published: one in the Fairhaven Collection, Anglesey Abbey, Cambridgeshire, illustrated by R. Soame Jenyns and W. Watson in Chinese Art II, New York, 1980, p. 152, pl. 111, subsequently sold at Christie's Hong Kong, 29 October 1995, lot 629, and now in the collection of the Hong Kong Museum of Art; the other in the exhibition catalogue, Chinese Works of Art and Snuff Bottles, The Chinese Porcelain Company, New York, June 1994, no. 25. Two much smaller (11.6 and 16.5 cm.) painted enamel double-gourd vases decorated in a similar style and each bearing a Qianlong seal mark have also been published. One in the Beijing Palace Museum is illustrated in Zhongguo Meishu Quanji, vol. 10, Gold, Silver, Glass and Enamels, Beijing, 1987, p. 191, no. 342, and p. 105, where the vase is described as being a product of the Yangxindian Palace workshop. The other in the collection of Mrs. Alfred Clarke is illustrated in the catalogue for the O.C.S. exhibition, The Arts of the Ch'ing Dynasty, London, 1964, pl. 109, no. 340. Like the present vase they both have a yellow ground finely stippled in red, but the similar gourd vines are more widely spaced and the two leaf-shaped panels enclose only a spray of flower stems and a butterfly.