A fine Famille-Verte 'sanduo' bottle vase, yuhuchunping. Qing dynasty, Kangxi period - Photo Sotheby's

the well proportioned pear-shaped body rising to a slender waisted neck and a broad everted rim, all supported on a slightly flared foot, the fine pure white porcelain decorated in a vivid palette of red, green, yellow, aubergine, blue and black enamels with three large fruits symbolizing the 'Three Abundances' evenly spaced around the body: a pomegranate bursting open revealing its numerous seeds inside for abundance of offspring, a peach for long life and a finger citron for abundant wealth, each depicted on a small stalk surrounded by green and aubergine leaves and one or two iron-red matching blossoms; 23.5 cm., 9 1/4 in. Estimation: 2,600,000 - 3,000,000 HKD

PROVENANCE: Collection of Stephen D. Winkworth (d. 1938).
Sotheby’s London, 27th April 1938, lot 357.
Spink & Son, London.

EXHIBITED: Chinese Ceramics from the Meiyintang Collection, The British Museum, London, 1994.

LITTERATURE: Soame Jenyns, Later Chinese Porcelain. The Ch’ing Dynasty (1644-1912), London, 1951, col. pl. B and pl. XLVI, fig. 1.
Martin Feddersen, Chinese Decorative Art, London, 1961, col. pl. opposite p. 92.
Regina Krahl, Chinese Ceramics from the Meiyintang Collection, London, 1994-2010, vol. 2, no. 772.

NOTE DE CATALOGUE: The present vase is a masterpiece of famille verte (wucai) painting and is remarkable for its fine white porcelain. The popular design of the sanduo (‘three abundances’), combining peach, pomegranate and finger citron as auspicious harbingers of endless long life, an abundance of offspring and plentiful blessings, was hardly ever depicted in such a magnificent manner as on this vase, where the enamels of the famille verte are imaginatively combined to achieve a striking image of juicy fruits.

As such, the vase is unique, although a more modest version, with simpler design of three peaches only, painted with less variation of the enamels and on a smaller, more slender vase, is in the Palace Museum, Beijing; see The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum. Porcelains in Polychrome and Contrasting Colours, Hong Kong, 1999, pl. 80 (fig. 1). A second related vase in the Palace Museum, also smaller, with a cylindrical neck and apparently decorated with three peaches only, is illustrated in Geng Baochang, ed., Gugong Bowuyuan cang gu taoci
ciliao xuancui [Selection of ancient ceramic material from the Palace Museum], vol. II, Beijing, 2005, pl. 44.

Sotheby's. The Meiyintang Collection, Part IV - An Important Selection of Imperial Chinese Porcelains. Hong Kong | 09 oct. 2012 www.sothebys.com