Page 82 - Bonhams Passkon and Philanthropy MET Mjuseum March 2024 Asia Week

The present lot is unique of its type for its large size and the finely rank. The peony too was a symbol of wealth and prosperity and is
molded handles. Other examples of this green-ground sgraffiato type sometimes known as the ‘flower of riches and honor’
are much smaller. See for example a related but smaller famille-rose (fugui hua 富貴花).
lime-green sgraffiato-ground baluster vase, 18th/19th century, also
from the Samuel Putnam Avery Collection and The Metropolitan The motif of pheasant and peony with magnolias was typical of the
Museum of Art, New York, which was sold at Christie’s New York, 15 mid-Qing period and can often be found on famille-rose decoration.
September 2016, lot 997. See a smaller famille-rose sgraffiato green- See for example, a famille-rose plate decorated with a similar design
ground vase, Qianlong seal mark and probably late in the period, of pheasant, peony, and magnolia, Yongzheng period, illustrated in
which was sold at Bonhams London, 16 May 2013, lot 89, and a The Complete Collection of the Treasures of the Palace Museum:
globular bottle vase, also Qianlong marked and illustrated by Ronald Porcelains with Cloisonné Enamel Decoration and Famille Rose
and Juliana Chao, Our Encounter with Ceramics, Zhejiang University, Decoration, Shanghai, 2009, p.76, no.66. See also Soame Jenyns,
Hangzhou, 2018, p.102, no.089. Later Chinese Porcelain, London, 1965, pl.CVI, no.1, for a Qianlong
period pink-ground sgraffiato vase with long-tailed birds amidst
The choice of plants and birds on the present lot is laden with flowers and tree branches from the famed Morrison Collection.
auspicious meaning. The pheasant was a symbol of good fortune
and often took the place of the phoenix in symbolic decoration. For another comparable large vase (32in high) of very similar form
Pheasants and birds in particular were also connected to the rank painted with phoenix in a peony landscape but with underglaze
badges worn by the ten ranks of the civil service; rank badges blue decoration at the neck and foot, see Sotheby’s New York, 17
with pheasants were worn by civil servants of the second highest September 1998, lot 260.

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