Lot 3691. A rare copper-red 'bats and lotus' globular jarlet, seal mark and period of Qianlong (1736-1795). Estimate 500,000 — 700,000 HKD. Photo: Sotheby's.
finely potted with a globular body resting on a slightly splayed foot and surmounted by a short upright neck, the body delicately painted in pinkish-red tones of copper red with a wide band of large lotus blooms borne on undulating scrolls and bats soaring with outstretched wings, the frieze detailed with wan symbols, some beribboned and suspended from the bats' mouths, all between borders of interlinked ruyi heads, the neck picked out with small upright lappets and the foot with a key-fret band, the base inscribed in underglaze blue with a six-character seal mark; w. 11 cm, 4 1/4 in.
Notes: This charming jarlet is unusual for both its shape and decoration, the latter successfully combining the highly auspicious motif of bats and wan symbols with elements borrowed from Western art, evident in the geometric rendering of the ruyiband under the neck. This echoes the carved wall panelling that incorporated the hallmark ‘C’ and ‘S’ shapes of the Rococo style, the architectural style that appeared in the European style palace buildings of the Yuanming Yuan, built to satisfy the Emperor’s lavish taste for the exotic as well as his desire to be seen as a universal ruler.
While no other vase of this shape and decoration appears to have been published, vases painted in a similar style with outlines filled with a multitude of small dots to depict the bats’ bodies, include a double gourd-shaped vase decorated with dragons amongst lingzhi scrolls, sold in these rooms, 8th April 2010, lot 1867; a meiping painted with the sanduo ('Three Abundances') theme, sold in these rooms, 29th April 1997, lot 653, and again at Christie’s Hong Kong, 29th May 2007, lot 1465; and another sold at Christie’s New York, 23rd March 2912, lot 2088.
Sotheby's. Important Chinese Art, Hong Kong, 05 oct. 2016, 02:30 PM