Pair of Large Antique Chinese Canton Famille Rose Porcelain Vases

17538: Pair of Large Antique Chinese Canton Famille Rose Porcelain Vases
Chinese, 19th century
Height: 82cm, width 34cm, depth 34cm

This imposing pair of Canton famille rose vases is a fine example of Qing dynasty export porcelain, densely painted with courtly scenes and applied with gilt lion dog and dragon ornament. Substantial in scale and richly enamelled, the vases display the technical accomplishment of the Cantonese decorating workshops at their height.

Each vase is of classical baluster form, rising from a slightly recessed base to a full convex body, drawing in at the neck before flaring to a gently foliate rim. The surface is decorated throughout in the characteristic famille rose palette of vivid magentas, sage greens, turquoise and gold. The principal panels depict scenes of court life and leisure, with scholars and attendants set within architecturally detailed interiors, their robes rendered in delicate washes of colour and their surroundings furnished with potted plants and ornamental vessels. The reverse panels continue the narrative with garden scenes populated by birds and exotic creatures. The intervening ground is filled with peonies, chrysanthemums and flowering branches, interspersed with brightly coloured birds, butterflies and insects including cicadas and beetles, while narrow bands of geometric fret in turquoise and gold define the boundaries of the enamelled panels.

The shoulders are applied with a pair of gilt Buddhist lion dogs modelled in high relief, each with its attendant pup seated between the fore paws. Beneath these and on the opposing sides, an undulating chilong dragon handle rises from the shoulder, articulated with spiralling ribbing and modelled with anatomical detail at the head and claws. The interiors retain their plain white porcelain surfaces, and the bases are unmarked, as is usual for export wares of this type.

Canton famille rose was enamelled in workshops in the city itself, using undecorated porcelain bodies brought from the kilns at Jingdezhen and finished to order for the export trade. Wares of this scale and decorative density were among the most sought-after Chinese porcelains of the 19th century, admired for the fusion of traditional Chinese subject matter, court scenes, gardens, auspicious flora and fauna, with forms and proportions calculated to suit the European interiors for which they were destined.

Of considerable presence, the pair would furnish a hall, staircase or reception room to striking effect, whether in a period setting or a contemporary one.
$48,000