A LARGE RUBY-GROUND FAMILLE-ROSE 'EIGHT DAOIST IMMORTALS' VASE QIANLONG SEAL MARK AND PERIOD

the tall ovoid lantern-shaped body superbly painted with a continuous scene depicting the 'Eight Daoist Immortals' and attendants gathered in a fantastical landscape setting to celebrate the birthday of Xiwangmu, Queen Mother of the West, who arrives seated astride a phoenix, each Immortal holding an identifying attribute, with the attendants bearing baskets of peaches and other tributes, all finely detailed in famille-rose enamels with gilt details, the scene framed within ruyi-head borders outlined in blue and yellow enamels and decorated with scrolling lotus and bats suspending ribboned wanzi, reserved on a rich ruby-red ground, all below a gilt rim, the interior and base enameled in turquoise, the six-character seal mark in iron-red reserved in a square

Collection of Léon Bartholin (1871-1918), Officer of the National Order of the Legion of Honour, France, acquired in China circa 1900.

Breaks to the vase sympathetically restored to a very high standard and it appears nothing is missing. The enamels excellently retained, minor wear.
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.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

A PEACH FESTIVAL FOR THE EMPEROR

This vase is exceptional for its elaborate design painted in a brilliant palette depicting Immortals celebrating the birthday of Xiwangmu, Queen Mother of the West. A sense of naturalism is successfully achieved through the carefully observed details, from the rendering of deer’s fur to the differing textures of the rocks and the numerous patterns adorning the clothing of the Immortals. The overall design was executed to perfectly complement the cylindrical shape of the vessel and be viewed like a painting on an unrolled handscroll.

The ‘Peach Festival’ is a popular Daoist theme associated with the birthday celebration of Xiwangmu, who has the sole authority to grant Peaches of Eternal Life and bestow the celebrant of the festival with great fortune. Xiwangmu is depicted seated gracefully on her phoenix, which carries her from her home in the Kunlun Mountains to observe the preparations for her Peach Banquet. She wears her characteristic phoenix headdress and is followed by a female assistant. In the landscape below, her entourage gather together large peaches of immortality for the Queen Mother’s inspection, while Immortals gather to greet her. The peaches, which are believed to bestow immortality on those who eat them, come from Xiwangmu’s orchard of 3600 trees. According to legend, each one of these trees was planted by the goddess herself. The fruit on the trees ripen once every 3000 years. While consuming a three thousand year peach will make you an immortal, eating a six thousand year peach, will give you everlasting life, and having a nine thousand year peach will give you a life span equal to that of heaven and earth. On the rare occasion of the peaches ripening, the Queen Mother invites all the immortals to a Peach Banquet, the Pantaohui, so that they can feast on peaches and assure their immortality.

Xiwangmu is the earliest recorded goddess in the Chinese pantheon. The first mention of her appears in Shang dynasty oracle bone inscriptions dating to the fifteenth century BC, that record sacrifices to Dongmu, Eastern Mother, and Ximu, Western Mother.  It is unclear if this Ximu is the same Queen Mother of the West, but certainly by the Han dynasty (206 BC-220 AD) Xiwangmu had emerged as a goddess worshipped not only by the Han imperial family and the upper classes, but also by the common people.

In the mythological classic Shanhai Jing, 'Classic of Mountains and Seas', compiled between the Early Warring States period and the Early Han dynasty (475 BC- 9 AD) Xiwangmu is described as a ferocious half-human, half-animal, with the teeth of a tiger and the tail of a leopard, who sends pestilence down upon the world. During the Northern and Southern Dynasties (420-589 AD) the religious Daoists with their belief in opposing and complimentary forces, adopted her as the counterpoint to Dongwanggong (The King Father of the East).  By this time she had shed her animal form, become the embodiment of femininity, the personification of the yin principle, and as a mother goddess, she was responsible for allocating the lifespans of humans.  As a result, she became associated with dispensing longevity, hence depictions of her are frequently found on birthday gifts.

A slightly smaller version of this vase, but set between turquoise ground bands, also with a Qianlong reign mark and of the period, in the Palace Museum, Beijing, is illustrated in Kangxi. Yongzheng. Qianlong. Qing Porcelain from the Palace Museum Collection, Hong Kong, 1989, p. 350, pl. 31 (fig. 1). Compare also an ovoid lantern-shaped vase depicting the Eight Immortals as they cross the rough seas after attending the peach festival of Xiwangmu, painted between pink-ground bands, also from the collection of Léon Bartholin (1871-1918), sold in our Hong Kong rooms, 6th April 2016, lot 3611 (fig. 2); and a pair of jars and covers, sold twice at Christie’s Hong Kong in 1992 and 1995, and again in these rooms, 17th March 2009, lot 124, from the collection of Gordon Getty.

With its combination of a continuous figural scene with formal scrollwork on a colored ground, this vase represents a somewhat later stage of porcelain decoration of the Qianlong reign. Although the individual elements of both shape and decoration are well-known from this reign, close counterparts are difficult to find as the Qianlong potters were masters at combining their many style elements in myriad ways to create ever new designs. The ruby-red ground neck and foot with formal flower scrolls are simulating the work characteristic of yangcai porcelains, which were probably inspired by brocade designs.

Qianlong mark and period vases of related form were typically decorated with figural scenes between colored borders; see a slightly smaller example with a cover, decorated with children at play between ruby-ground borders, but with a short straight neck, included in The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum. Porcelains with Cloisonné Enamel Decoration and Famille Rose Decoration, Hong Kong, 1999, pl. 128; another with turquoise-ground borders, illustrated in Kangxi. Yongzheng. Qianlong. Qing Porcelain from the Palace Museum Collection, op. cit., p. 353, pl. 34, together with larger examples, pls. 29 and 30, decorated with a landscape scene and children at play respectively; and a green-ground version in the Nanjing Museum, published in The Official Kiln Porcelain of the Chinese Qing Dynasty, Shanghai, 2003, p. 320.