A rare parcel-gilt bronze ‘shou’ jar, pou, Late Ming-early Qing period

Lot 3020. A rare parcel-gilt bronze ‘shou’ jar, pou, Late Ming-early Qing period. Estimate HKD 700,000 - HKD 900,000. Price realised HKD 875,000 © Christie's Images Ltd 2017

The globular body is decorated in gilt and relief with one hundred and twenty-eight shou characters rendered in different forms of seal
script, all against a fish-roe punched ground, below an archaistic wavy border on the neck and a key-fret band on the galleried mouth rim. The shoulders are set with a pair of ring handles supporting taotie masks. 7 in. (17.8 cm) high, box, zitan cover with carnelian agate finial

Provenance: Sold at Sotheby’s Hong Kong, 8th October 2006, lot 1154
Sold at Sotheby’s New York, 20 March 2012, lot 73

Note: The motif of multiple shou (longevity) characters on this jar conveys the auspicious message ‘countless years of long life without limit’. During the Kangxi period, a small group of massive blue and white ‘wanshou’ porcelain vases was made at the Imperial kilns in Jingdezhen, on which 9999 shou characters and a single wan character were inscribed, suggesting they may have been made as Imperial birthday presents. One such example of a Kangxi blue and white wanshou vase was sold at Christie’s Hong Kong, 27 November 2013, lot 3419.

Christie's. The Imperial Sale / Important Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art, 31 May 2017, Convention Hall