Pair of Chinese porcelain wucai baluster vases and covers, Shunzhi period, 1644-1661. Photo Marchant

each painted with six boys wearing yellow aprons and green collars, bracelets and anklets, in various positions climbing amongst long branches of iron-red peony amongst green and underglaze-blue leaves, the high shoulder with a white band of cracked ice or paving beneath lotus flowers, amongst scrolling foliage on the neck, the covers similarly decorated with camellia. The base unglazed with traces of writing both in Chinese and a western hand, possibly readingshi liu zhi, and inventory number 4836x. Total height 13 ¾ inches, 35 cm. Price on request

From a French private collection, by repute from a Château in northern France.

Notes: A similar vase is illustrated by Shūichi Taji in Chinese Porcelain of the Ch’ing Dynasty, colour pl. 21.
A vase of this form painted with vases of peony, lotus and camellia from the collection of Eileen Lesouëf is illustrated by Michael Butler, Julia B. Curtis and Stephen Little inShunzhi Porcelain, Treasures from an Unknown Reign, 1644-1661, no. 34, pp. 144/5.
The rebus is probably liansheng guizi, ‘may you continually give birth to distinguished sons’.