A magnificient Imperial turquoise-ground 'Famille rose' vase

Description:

China, gilt Qianlong seal mark and period
H. 51 cm
The vase is of baluster form, with a waisted base and a full, rounded body that sweeps up to a flared rim. It is flanked by a pair of archaistic dragon handles, joined by a broad relief band that collars the neck. The piece is superbly enamelled within gilt outlines on an intense turquoise ground, with eighteen iron-red bats hovering among detached floral sprigs and billows of blue and white clouds. Each side shows four bats surrounding a central bat, with further groups of three bats below the handles and two on the neck. The dragon handles are finely painted in delicate shades of iron-red with gilt details. The raised collar band encircling the neck is centred with two iron-red shou medallions and pink-petalled floral sprays on a rich yellow ground, picked out with feathery gilt scrolls. All of this lies below a border of pendent yellow-ground ruyi and a gilt mouth rim. The base is skirted with pale green crashing waves and two jagged rocks, exquisitely enamelled in shades of blue and pale green. The interior and the base are enamelled turquoise, the latter inscribed with a six-character gilt seal mark.
This vase is part of a group of vessels commissioned by the Qianlong emperor, made to imitate cloisonné enamel. Qianlong was especially fond of cloisonné, which he revived on a grand scale after it had been neglected under the Yongzheng emperor. He had it imitated not only in porcelain, as on the present piece, but also in copper, where the wires separating the cloisons of different enamels were mirrored by finely painted golden lines. The idea of imitating other materials in porcelain had existed well before the 18th century, but the craftsmen of the Qianlong period raised the technique to a completely different level of perfection, at times producing pieces that were hard to distinguish from the medium they simulated. The painter of the present piece has successfully recreated the effect of gilt wires by outlining the famille-rose enamelled pattern in gilt, whose linearity contrasts pleasingly with the sculptural dragon handles.
Old Northern German private collection, collected by the father of the present owner. By repute from an old Hamburg Merchant family assembled in China in the early 20th cent.
Although the vase imitates cloisonné metalwork in its colour scheme, stylistically it follows the tradition of yangcai porcelain, with a sumptuous overall design on a coloured ground. A particularly unusual feature, however, is the crashing waves adorning the foot instead of the more customary upright lappets. Compare a blue-ground vase of similar form and wave band, but painted with two phoenixes flying amongst clouds and with elephant-head handles, published in The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum. Porcelains with Cloisonné Enamel Decoration and Famille-Rose Decoration, Hong Kong, 1999, pl. 134.
The vase is rich in symbolism. Its front and back faces are decorated with the wufu in iron red, representing the five blessings, and a further three bats below each handle bring the total to eighteen bats, itself a further reference to prosperity. The recurring scrolling clouds allude to never-ending fortune, while the shou character symbolises longevity.
Maybe the pair to the present vase was sold at Sotheby's Hongkong from an old Kyoto private collection, 7.10.203, lot 201. A globular vase of this type, painted overall with numerous bats and scrolling clouds above a lappet and ruyi border on the foot and flanked by sculptural dragon handles, was sold at Sotheby's London on 10th December 1991, lot 318. Other vases from this group, of various forms and decoration, include three from the Qing Court collection that remain in Beijing, illustrated in ibid., pls. 115, 118 and 119, the last also with a gilt seal mark; one from the collections of Alfred Morrison, the Fonthill Heirlooms and J.T. Tai, sold at Sotheby's Hongkong, 7th October 2010, lot 213 - Small 1.4 x 1.3 cm chip and related 4.5 cm hairline crack to mouth otherwise some light scratches to the surface.