Lot 3123. A very rare pair of famille rose 'bats and flowers' vases, Jiaqing six-character seal marks in iron red and of the period (1796-1820). Estimate HK$20,000,000 – HK$28,000,000 ($2,592,720 - $3,629,808). Unsold. Photo Christie's Image Ltd 2015

The ovoid body of each vase is finely painted with four oval medallions, each centered by a lotus bloom below a bat suspending a Wan emblem surrounded by entwined lotus and pomegranates, interspersed by further lotus blooms above a splayed foot and below the similarly decorated neck flanked by a pair of blue archaistic kui dragon handles, all below the flaring mouth rim encircled by a trefoil lappet border. The interior and base are enamelled turquoise. 13 1/2 in. (34 .2 cm.) high, box

Provenance: Mr and Mrs Walter Taylor (1838-1916)
Thence by descent to their daughter, Elizabeth Taylor Dunnington 
Thence by descent to her daughter, Judith Dunnington Peabody (1930-2010) 
Sold at Sotheby's Hong Kong, 8 April 2011, lot 3076 

Notes: The exquisite enamelling seen on the current pair of vases suggests that these were made during the early reign of the Jiaqing period, when imperial porcelain followed closely the designs of that of the Qianlong period, and were likely made by the same potters as those who undertook the task for the Qianlong court. 

Similar examples to the current pair are known, but none appears to have the same form and decoration. Compare to a famille rose yellow-ground vase with archaistic handles in the Huaihaitang Collection, illustrated in Ethereal Elegance. Porcelain Vases of the Imperial Qing. The Huaihaitang Collection, Hong Kong, 2007, pp. 374-5, no. 135; and a famille rose vase without handles decorated with roundels enclosing a pair of dragons confronted on a lotus bloom in the National Museum of China, illustrated in Zhongguo guojia bowuguan guancang wenwu yanjiu congshu - ciqi juan - Qing, Shanghai, 2007, p. 192, no. 128. Interestingly, the present pair appears to be the only examples where roses have been included in the decoration. 

Christie's. IMPORTANT CHINESE CERAMICS AND WORKS OF ART, 2 December 2015, Convention Hall