A pair of large wucai jars and covers, Shunzhi period (1643-1661). Sold for £12,500 (€17,695). Photo: Bonhams.

The jars of baluster form painted in mirror image with a garden scene depicting the preparation of the Peach Banquet for the Queen Mother of the West, wearing flowing robes and holding a ruyi sceptre, flanked by a phoenix, surrounded by a group of female musicians and other maids gathering together the peaches of immortality, followed by others carrying a fan, a lingzhi fungus and a miniature landscape in a tray, all amidst pine trees, rockwork and clouds, the short neck with fruiting sprays of peach, the domed cover painted with a group of dancing boys in a fenced garden.48.5cm (19 1/8in) (4).

Notes: Large vases such as this, filled with immortality motifs, would have been appropriate as gifts for birthday celebrations. Xiwangmu is the earliest recorded goddess in the Chinese pantheon. Her cult became increasingly popular, especially during the Han dynasty, when she became associated with dispensing longevity, probably, as a response to the growing interest in Daoism and its relation to the attainment of immortality at the time. When the peaches growing in Xiwangmu's land ripened, the deity invited all immortals to a banquet, the Pantaohui, to extend their life. 

Compare a related wucai jar, Transitional Period, illustrated by C.J.A.Jörg, Chinese Ceramics in the Collection of the Rijksmuseum, London, 1997, no.75, p.84, and a jar illustrated by M.A.Pinto and J.P.Desroches, Chinese Export Porcelain from the Museum of Anastácio Gonçalves, Lisbon, 1996, no.86, pp.170-171.

Bonhams. FINE CHINESE ART, 12 Nov 2015 10:00 GMT - LONDON, NEW BOND STREET