A rare blue and white 'deer' lantern vase. Qianlong

Finely painted in underglaze blue depicting a large gnarled pine tree in the form of a stylised 'shou' character, with a doe and spotted dear on one side, and a pair of cranes on the other, all amidst rockwork, grass and lingzhi fungus, with five bats (wu fu) in flight above, the neck with four parallel bands, depicting cranes amid clouds, fruiting peach branches, bats amid clouds, and ruyi head motifs, the foot with a further band of peach branches above a trefoil design. 37.9cm (15in) high. Estimate: HK$320,000-350,000. Sold for HK$364,000

Footnote: The exceptional quality and style of painting on the present vase are reminiscent of paintings by the Italian Jesuit court painter Giuseppe Castiglione (1688-1766). Castiglione's paintings fused European techniques of perspective and shading with traditional Chinese ink painting and greatly influenced the official court painting of the time.

Comparable examples of lantern vases with the main register depicted with ten deer and framed by six narrow borders, are painted in copper-red and underglaze-blue. See a Qianlong seal mark and period vase, illustrated by J. Thompson, Imperial Perfection. The Palace Porcelain of Three Chinese Emperors Kangxi-Yongzheng-Qianlong, Hong Kong, 2004, Catalogue no. 27; another example from the L. van der Heyden à Hauzeur collection, sold Christie's London, 9 December 1985, lot 124.

清乾隆 青花福鹿壽燈籠尊

Bonhams. Fine Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art, 4 Dec 2008. Hong Kong.  Copyright © 2002-2008 Bonhams 1793 Ltd., Images and Text All Rights Reserved. www.bonhams.com