Lot 156. A fine and rare two-handled ruby-ground 'famille-rose' vase, Seal mark and period of Jiaqing (1796-1820), 31.7cm., 12 1/2 in. Estimate 80,000 — 120,000 GBP. Lot sold 388,800 GBP. Photo Sotheby's.

 finely enamelled around the ovoid body with a continuous landscape scene, depicting four elderly Daoist Immortals and their two young attendants standing amidst rocks and overhanging pine trees looking out across the Eastern sea to a pavilion raised on a rocky platform above foaming tumultuous waves, one of the attendants holding a cylinder of prayer sticks and the second restraining a crane while its mate flies with a prayer stick clasped in its beak over the waves to the Daoist Immortals Paradise, all set between ruyibordered bands of floral strapwork and auspicious emblems reserved on a rich ruby-red ground, the tall waisted neck set with a pair of dragon scroll handles, the interior and base glazed turquoise.

Note: In its shape and decoration the present vase belongs to a group of wares produced at the imperial kilns at Jingdezhen during the early years of Jiaqing's reign. Wares of this period continued to be influenced by Qianlong designs and were possibly made by the same potters who made wares for the Qianlong emperor and his household. The very fine and meticulous painting of the scene of Immortals gathering in an idyllic landscape setting is reminiscent of scroll paintings with the ruby-ground band around the mouth and foot serving as borders for the painting.    

See a Qianlong vase of different shape painted with the design of nine elders in `famille-rose', also with ruby-ground decoration around the mouth and foot, illustrated in Kangxi. Yongzheng. Qianlong. Qing Porcelain from the Palace Museum Collection, Hong Kong, 1989, pl. 28, together with another vase painted with the Eight Immortals in between turquoise-ground panels, pl. 31; and a lantern-shaped vase, also with a Qianlong reign mark and of the period, decorated with playing children between a green-ground band, included in Treasures of the Royalty. The Official Kiln Porcelain of the Chinese Qing Dynasty, Shanghai, 2003, pl. 320. See also a Qianlong mark and period vase sold in these rooms, 7th December 1993, lot 282, painted with a similar celebratory scene.

Sotheby's. Fine Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art, Londres, 12 juil. 2006