Lot 3715. A coral-ground gilt-decorated famille-rose wall vase, seal mark and period of Qianlong (1736-1795);  21.3 cm., 8 3/8  in. Estimate  1,000,000 — 2,000,000 HKD (114,956 — 229,912 EUR). Lot sold 1,375,000 HKD (158,064 EUR). Photo Sotheby's.

modelled as a baluster vase supported on a faux bois stand, the front decorated with a large moulded cartouche enclosing finely painted pink, white and yellow flowering peonies growing from one side, against a coral-red ground gilt with scrolling lotus flowers, the waisted neck similarly decorated with a stylised shou character below a descending open-winged bat, flanked on either side with a pair of gilt-decorated turquoise ground archaistic dragon handles, the flat reverse side detailed with florets covering the spur marks, the base inscribed in gilt with a four-character horizontal seal mark.

Provenance: Christie's Hong Kong, 1st June 2011, lot 4015. 

Note: The present piece is a fine example of the dexterity of 18th century imperial porcelain manufacturers at Jingdezhen who produced an immense variety of styles and constantly devised further novelties to satisfy the Qianlong Emperor’s predilection for idiosyncratic forms and designs. During the Qianlong reign, and often under his personal supervision, simulations that were often difficult to distinguish from the ‘real’ were produced and these pieces became the trompe-l’oeilof ceramics. This vase with stand simulating wood is a good example of the technique of combining the ‘real’ with thetrompe-l’oeil. Zhu Yan in Tao shuo, published in 1774, noted that ‘in fact, among all the works of art in gold, embossed silver, chiselled stone, lacquer, mother-of-pearl, bamboo and wood, gourd and shell, there is not one that is not now produced in porcelain, a perfect imitation of the original (fang xiao er xiao)’.

Wall vases of this type were an innovation of the Qianlong period. Flattened at the back as though cut in half and often made in pairs, these vases were commonly hung inside sedan chairs. In a poem inscribed on one porcelain wall vase, the Qianlong Emperor commented on the pleasure provided by these vases when filled with flowers, which allowed him to enjoy their fragrance while the ‘red dust’ (cares of the world) could not reach him (see the catalogue to the exhibition China. The Three Emperors 1662-1795, Royal Academy of Arts, London, 2005, pl. 445).

Four Qianlong mark and period wall vases with similar simulated stands, in the Huaihaitang collection, were included in the exhibition Ethereal Elegance. Porcelain Vases of the Imperial Qing, Art Gallery, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, 2007, cat. nos. 129-132; another was sold in these rooms, 26th October 1993, lot 258; and a pair of vases was sold at Christie’s New York, 3rd June 1988, lot 305.

Sotheby's. Important Chinese Art, Hong Kong, 07 oct. 2015