Lot 3076. A fine small blue and white ‘Three Friends of Winter’ jar, Yongzheng six-character mark within a double circle and of the period (1723-1735); 3 1/4 in. (8 cm.) high. Estimate HKD 500,000 - HKD 800,000. Price realised HKD 625,000. © Christie's Image Ltd 2019

The high-shouldered, tapering body is finely decorated with one young and one mature pine tree with widely spreading branches that partially obscure two slender prunus trees, with bamboo growing in their midst, the decoration representing the 'Three Friends of Winter' (prunus, pine and bamboo), all below a narrow scroll border of detached clouds on the short, waisted neck, box.

Provenance: Sold at Sotheby’s Hong Kong, 2 May 1995, lot 62.

Note: Several jars of this design and small size are known including a pair illustrated by John Alexander Pope, Porcelains in the Frick Collection, vol. 7, New York, 1974, p. 69, nos. 124 and 125 (5.4 cm. high); another smaller example (6.2 cm. high) in the S.C. Ko Tianminlou Collection illustrated by Liu Liang-yu, A Survey of Chinese Ceramics, vol. 5, Taipei, 1991, p. 90; and a slightly larger jar (8.9 cm.) sold at Christie's New York, 22-23 March 2012, lot 2023.

Christie's. Important Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art, Hong Kong, 27 November 2019