Lot 3736. A rare turquoise-ground famille rose bottle vase, Qianlong iron-red six-character sealmark and of the period (1736-1795); 13 5/8 in. (34.6 cm.) high. Estimate HKD 3,000,000 - HKD 4,000,000. Price Realized HKD 5,420,000. © Christie's Images Ltd. 2011  

Enamelled around the globular body with four large lotus blooms borne on a continuous meander of curling tendrils, each bloom growing a ripe peach, finger citron and pomegranate to form the 'Three Abundances', Sanduo, the cylindrical neck with a pair of stylised descending bats in iron-red, each suspending from their mouths a chain comprising of a pair of confronted butterflies attached to an eternal knot, all reserved on a turquoise ground, below a band of pink-enamelled ruyi-head band under the everted mouth rim, the slightly spreading foot encircled by a keyfret band, the underside base enamelled with turquoise reserving the iron-red reign mark, Japanese wood box. 

Property of the Yiqingge Collection

Provenance: Gallery R, Japan, circa 1950s.

Literature: Porcelain of the Ch'ing Dynasty, Taji Shuichi, 1977, no. 55.

Note: Compare with two larger examples of this shape, both of 37.1 cm. high; the first from the Edward T. Chow Collection sold at Sotheby's Hong Kong, 19 May 1981, lot 607, and the other was sold at Christie's Hong Kong, 29 May 2007, lot 1511. These two cited examples are designed with melons growing on curling vines rather than the Sanduo, 'Three Abundances' of the peach, pomegranate and finger citron, as enamelled on the present vase.