Page 49 - Sotheby's October 3 2017 Chinese Art
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fig. 1 fig. 2
Turquoise-ground famille-rose handled ‘lotus’ vase, seal Turquoise-ground famille-rose vase, seal mark and
mark and period of Qianlong, period of Qianlong,
Qing court collection from a Kyoto collection,
© Collection of the Palace Museum, Beijing Sotheby’s Hong Kong, 8th October 2013, lot 201.
The appearance of ruyi sceptres as handles on vases was Cloisonné Enamel Decoration and Famille-Rose Decoration,
clearly a response to the Qianlong Emperor’s infatuation with Hong Kong, 1999, pls 115, 119 (fig. 1) and 118. Further large
these portents of good fortune, which during his reign were vases belonging to this group, of various forms and decoration,
produced by the thousands in all possible materials. Although include one enamelled with bats among clouds and flower
ruyi sceptres as well as the bajixiang included in the decoration sprays, flanked by a pair of archaistic dragon handles, sold in
were originally symbols with Buddhist connotation, by the these rooms, 8th October 2013, lot 201 (fig. 2); another also
Qianlong period they had become general auspicious emblems painted with bats and clouds, sold in our London rooms, 10th
and can even be found in combination with Daoist symbols. December 1991, lot 318; and another, depicting bats amongst
foliate flower scrolls and iron-red monster mask handles, sold
Compare three related vases in the Palace Museum, Beijing, three times in these rooms, 14th November 1989, lot 309, 2nd
from the Qing court collection: one of gourd shape without May 2000, lot 644, and 8th April 2010, lot 1852.
handles, similarly decorated with loosely strewn flower sprays
in cloisonné style, but lacking the bajixiang and bearing a The piece is vaguely reminiscent of a cloisonné vase from
red seal mark; another of simpler bottle form with different the Qing court collection and still in Beijing, illustrated in The
handles, decorated with flower scrolls in cloisonné style and Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum. Metal-
bearing a similar mark in gold (fig. 1); and a third with similar bodied Enamel Ware, Hong Kong, 2002, pl. 167, which may,
ruyi handles but decorated with flower scrolls without golden however, postdate the present piece. For vases decorated in
outlines on a turquoise ground, all illustrated in The Complete this cloisonné style but in painted enamel, also in the Palace
Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum. Porcelains with Museum, Beijing, from the Qing court collection, see ibid., pls
214 and 244, and a detail p. 179.
IMPORTANT CHINESE ART 47
