Lot 218. A famille rose 'hundred bats' globular trumpet-necked vase, Guangxu six-character mark and of the period (1875-1908), 39.5cm (15 1/2in) high. . Sold for £16,250 (€19,210). Photo: Bonhams.

Brightly enamelled with a profusion of iron-red bats in flight amidst multicoloured lingzhi clouds, between a band of ruyi heads at the rim and upright lappets around the foot, divided at the shoulder by a band of lotus sprays alternating with gilt shou characters on the shoulder above a gilt relief border.

Provenance: an English private collection

Note: Represented in conjunction with the character shou 壽, meaning longevity, and blossoming lotuses, symbolising fertility, bats are homophone with the word for happiness 福. Combined with coloured clouds, symbolic of luck, red bats were also regarded as representing the upper limits of heaven, generating the pun 'Vast happiness piled up to the sky', hongfu qitian 洪福齊天.

Compare with a very similar vase, Guangxu, in the Nanjing Museum, illustrated in China's Jingdezhen Porcelain Through The Ages, Qing Dynasty, Hong Kong, 1998, p.357. 

A similar vase, Guangxu mark and of the period, was sold in these rooms on 17 May 2012, lot 359.