Superbly cast in the shape of a peach, this impressive basin is remarkable for its large size, colourful enamels and naturalistically cast handle which takes the form of a gnarled branch. Cloisonné vessels in the form of peaches are unusual and only a few examples are known; one with a slightly incurved rim was included in the exhibition Colourful, Elegant and Exquisite: A Special Exhibition of Imperial Enamel Ware from Mr Robert Chang’s Collection, Suzhou Museum, Suzhou, 2007, cat. no. 122; another from the collections of Sir John Buchanan-Jardine and T.B. Kitson, included in the International Exhibition of Chinese Art, Royal Academy of Arts, London, 1935-1936, cat. no. 2019, was sold in our London rooms, 18th October 1960; and a third was sold in our New York rooms, 23rd March 1998, lot 111.

This piece was probably inspired by much smaller fruit-shaped vessels made for the scholar’s desk, which were popular throughout the early Qing dynasty. These are known in a variety of media, including porcelain; see a washer covered in a guan-type glaze, and with a Yongzheng reign mark and of the period, in the Palace Museum, Beijing, illustrated in Classics of the Forbidden City. Scholar’s Paraphernalia, Beijing, 2015, pl. 85, together with two Qianlong mark and period examples, pls 86 and 87, the first covered in a Jun-type glaze and the second in a Ru-type glaze.

The form and design of this basin brim with auspicious wishes, from the numerous bats (fu), which are homophonous with the word for blessings (fu), to the alternating swastikas (wan) and longevity (shou) characters, expressing the wish wanshou wujiang (may you have ten thousand longevities without boundary), and the colourful clouds (yun). The auspicious message is further strengthened by its shape that depicts a peach, one of China’s most auspicious fruit, symbolic of long life and harbinger of happiness.