A SMALL GILT-DECORATED CORAL-GROUND DOUBLE-GOURD VASE SEAL MARK AND PERIOD OF JIAQING

THIS IS A PREMIUM LOT.   CLIENTS WHO WISH TO BID ON PREMIUM LOTS ARE REQUESTED TO COMPLETE THE PREMIUM LOT PRE-REGISTRATION 3 WORKING DAYS PRIOR TO THE SALE.




of well potted elegant bulbous form rising from an unglazed footring, finely decorated around the sides in gilt, the lower bulb with four large lotus blooms on which a large peach sprig rests, alternating with a bat suspending a wan character on a beaded garland, amid further lotus blooms borne on leafy scrolling stems, all below a band of alternating ruyi-heads and bats and above upright lappets at the foot, the waist with a floral scroll band, the upper bulb decorated with a similar scrolling lotus meander, with four equally spaced wan characters, below a pendant trefoil band at the rim, all reserved on a rich orange-red ground, the interior and base turquoise, with a central square reserved in white on the base for the six-character seal-mark in iron-red

Acquired in France.

Gourd-shaped vessels of this decoration are rare although a closely related Jiaqing double-gourd vase decorated in gilt on a blue-ground was included in the exhibition Nineteenth Century Mark and Period Porcelain, S. Marchant and Son, London, 1991, p. 13, cat.no. 1, where it is noted that 'because of its many seeds, the gourd has come to represent fertility. The predominance of lotus, symbolising marriage, and the other auspicious symbols suggest that this is a marriage vase'. 

Another coral-ground Jiaqing vase of this form and decoration, formerly in the collection of the Cleveland Museum of Art, was sold at Christie's New York, 21st September 2000, lot 379, and again at Christie's Hong Kong, 29th April 2002, lot 574.