Author: --
Size: H11cm
Signed and dated: Qianlong Period,Qing Dynasty
Estimate:
Final Price: RMB 5,600,000
Qianlong Six-Character Mark
This vase is nicely potted with double gourds and short rim. The body is finely painted with bats in flight in iron-red and their eyes are picked out in black enamel. All patterns are painted beneath a gilt band at the neck. The recessed base is inscribed with a six-character Qianlong mark in iron-red inside a square.
It is believed that vases decorated with the design of innumerable bats were made for special occasions or events for celebrating purpose. Bat is traditionally a symbol of good fortune,and red bats are even more auspicious because the red’s pronounciation in Chinese is identical in sound to the word‘enormous’,thus indicating especially great fortune. Another similarly decorated vase can be found in the collection of Marcus D. Ezekiel Esq.,sold at Christie’s London,18th March 1930,lot 96.
Provenance
Sotheby’s London,May.16.2007,lot 97
The Ten-Views Lingbi Rock Retreat Collection,no.EK324