Page 35 - Bonhams Chinese Art London May 2013

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A blue and white double-gourd vase
Circa 1640
The lower section painted in vivid underglaze blue with
two fan-shaped cartouches, each containing two lively
boys at play, one scene with a boy on a hobby horse with
his companion holding up a lotus-leaf parasol and the
other with a boy lighting a firecracker while his companion
covers his ears, all surrounded by scattered floral sprays
beneath a floral scroll dividing the upper section also
painted with scattered groups of lotus and other flowers
and fruits.
33.3cm (13 1/8in) high
£20,000 - 25,000
HK$240,000 - 290,000 CNY190,000 - 240,000
約1640年 青花開光人物故事圖葫蘆瓶
The present lot is auspicious both in its form and its
decoration: the double gourd symbolises good fortune and
fertility while the boys at play also suggest fertility and the
continuity of the family line.
The double gourd form was popular throughout the
Ming period and continued in the Qing, with constant
developments of proportions and decoration. The fan-
shaped cartouches of the present lot are distinctively
Transitional, as are the scattered floral sprigs, although it
is more unusual to find these cartouches on the double
gourd form. Compare a cylindrical vase also with fan-shaped
cartouches illustrated by C.J.A.Jörg, Chinese Ceramics in the
Collection of the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam: The Ming and
Qing Dynasties, London, 1997, no.67.

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