Page 153 - Sothebys Important Chinese Art April 3 2018

This piece has been masterfully executed to resemble the 1973, cat. no. 66, recently sold with its pair in our rooms, 1st
celebrated blue and white wares of the early fifteenth century December 2017, lots 323 and 325. Two further flasks were sold
through the use of the ‘heaped and piled’ technique to render in these rooms, one from the collection of R.I.C. Herridge, sold
the designs. By carefully manipulating the cobalt pigment the 28th November 1978, lot 235, and the other, 27th April 1993,
craftsman of the present piece has successfully simulated the lot 166; and a fine example of this model was sold in our Paris
uneven blue tones characteristic of the early Ming period that rooms, 18th December 2009, lot 263.
occurred naturally as a result of the firing process.
The design of peaches and bats, with its highly auspicious
A closely related example was included in The Exhibition message, appears to have originated in the Yongzheng reign
of Chinese Ceramics of Eight Dynasties, National Museum (1722-1735) and grew in popularity during the Qianlong period
of History, Beijing, 1987, p. 65; another was exhibited in (1736-1795), when it was represented in all possible media.
Beauty and Tranquillity. The Eli Lily Collection of Chinese The bat (fu) and peach (shoutao) create the pun fushou
Art, Indianapolis Museum of Art, Indianapolis, 1983, cat. no. shuangquan (‘May you have both blessings and longevity’),
116; and another from the T.Y. Chao family collection was which makes this piece particularly suited to be presented as a
included in the exhibition Ch’ing Porcelain from the Wah Kwong gift on the occasion of a birthday.
Collection, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong,

IMPORTANT CHINESE ART 151