A RARE RUBY-GROUND LANTERN VASE SEAL MARK AND PERIOD OF JIAQING

the tall cylindrical body well painted with a group of Daoist immortals and their attendants playing touhu - tossing sticks into a vase - while standing in a balustraded garden overlooking a turbulent Eastern Sea,  the sticks delivered by white cranes flying across the water towards a small cloud-shrouded isle with a pavilion housing a censer full of sticks, the attendants depicted holding a vase containing sticks and preparing  a crane to fly, further behind another scholar and two attendants approach the group, the landscape filled with lush pines and trees, all between ruyi-head borders at foot and shoulder, the latter rising to a waisted neck, the ruby-enamelled ground contrasting with the bright enamels of the scrolling lotus motifs, with gilding at the rim and top of keyfret foot, the interior and base glazed turquoise, the base inscribed in red with a six-character reign mark reserved on a white ground

Collection of a Chinese antique dealer formed before WWII.
Acquired in Brittany, France, 1972.

There is a very faint 1cm hairline on the rim above the pine tree and a few minor scratches to the enamelling. The overall condition is very good. The gilding remains intact.
"In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective, qualified opinion. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

The present vase is notable for its vivid palette and meticulously detailed scene. In form and compositional scheme it belongs to a special group of wares produced at the imperial kilns at Jingdezhen that continued in the tradition of Qianlong designs. Such wares were possibly created by the same craftsmen who produced pieces for the Qianlong emperor and his household.  It also suggests that the vase was made in the first half of Jiaqing's reign.

Compare a slightly larger Jiaqing vase of this decoration and form, but flanked with archaistic dragon handles, sold in our London rooms, 12^th July 2006, lot 156; a vase of closely related form and ruby-ground borders, but painted with a scene of ladies of the Han Palace, sold at Christie's Hong Kong, 1^st May 1995, lot 672, and again in our New York rooms, 16^th September 2009, lot 222; and a third example sold in these rooms, 2^nd November 1998, lot 411.

For a Qianlong vase of similar form and painted  with the Eight Immortals between a turquoise-ground neck and foot, see one in the Palace Museum, Beijing, illustrated in Kangxi. Yongzheng. Qianlong. Qing Porcelain from the Palace Museum Collection, Hong Kong, 1989, p. 350, pl. 31; and a green-ground example depicting children at play in the Nanjing Museum, Nanjing, published in The Official Kiln Porcelain of the Chinese Qing Dynasty, Shanghai, 2003, pl. 320.

This scene of four elderly Daoist Immortals in an idyllic landscape setting looking out across to the Eastern Sea to the Daoist Immortals Paradise is reminiscent of scroll painting with its horizontal format, fine black outlines and the ruby-ground encircling the neck and foot which serve as borders for the painting.