A Rare Famille-Verte 'Birds And Flowers' Yen-Yen Vase. Qing Dynasty, Kangxi Period - Photo Sotheby's

the rounded baluster body surmounted by a tall cylindrical neck and a wide flared rim, brightly enamelled in shades of green, blue, yellow, iron-red, aubergine with black and gold details, depicting a pair of ribbon-tailed birds perched on craggy rocks among luscious peonies on one side and two songbirds on a gnarled branch of camellia tree on the other, the shoulder picked out with a band of iron-red key-fret suspending green ruyi, below a border of green lattices interspersed with florets, the neck similarly decorated with two songbirds perched on rocks among large chrysanthemum, asters, clump of iris and red wisterias, below a blue double line at the rim further repeated around the shoulder and the foot, the white glazed base centred with a double ring in underglaze blue; 45.7 cm., 18 in. Estimation: 2,000,000 - 3,000,000 HKD

PROVENANCE: Sotheby's London, 6th December 1994, lot 199.
Christie's Hong Kong, 3rd November 1996, lot 780.

NOTE DE CATALOGUE: This vase is notable for the richly painted scene of birds in a rocky outcrop of flowering plants. The confident brushwork, seen particularly in the application of black enamel and lush palette of greens, blues and vivid red, presents a luxurious design enhanced through the use of gilt paint. Birds are painted in pairs which suggest that this may have been presented on the occasion of a marriage.

Vases of this form and size, and similarly accented with gilt painting, include one depicting a related scene of birds amongst flowers from the Chrysler Museum, Norfolk, Virginia, sold at Christie's New York, 6th June 1985, lot 406; and another depicting lotus flowers, illustrated in Kangxi, Yongzheng, Qianlong. Porcelain from the Palace Museum Collection, Hong Kong, 1989, p. 53, pl. 36. See also a vase with a similar scene, another illustrated in Toru Nakano, The Panoramic Views of Chinese Patterns, Tokyo, 1985, pl. 142; and another sold in our London rooms, 28th June 1983, lot 81. Compare also a beaker vase with a related design in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, included in Suzanne G. Valenstein, A Handbook of Chinese Ceramics, New York, 1989, col. pl. 406. 

Related bird and flower designs are also known on yen yen vases of this size in underglaze blue; one in the Palace Museum, Beijing, is illustrated in Qing Shunzhi Kangxi chao qinghua ci, Bejing, 2005, pl. 305; and another in the Shanghai Museum, Shanghai, published in Kangxi Porcelain Wares, Hong Kong, 1998, pl. 68-1.

Sotheby's. Fine Chinese Ceramics & Works of Art. Hong Kong | 09 oct. 2012 www.sothebys.com