A MINIATURE CHINESE FAMILLE ROSE 'BOYS' GOURD-SHAPED VASE, HULUPING

REPUBLIC PERIOD

Decorated to each side with a panel enclosing two boys playing in a garden, with roundels painted en grisaille with river landscapes above, the scenes divided by stylised blooms and archaistic beasts, all flanked by two slender strap handles, with a four character Qianlong mark to the base, 10cm.

Provenance: from an English private collection, West Yorkshire, formed in the 1970s and 1980s.

Cf. The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum, vol.39, Porcelains with Cloisonné Enamel Decoration and Famille Rose Decoration, p.42, no.35 for a comparable Qianlong mark and period vase of a similar shape and size painted with Western figures on a yellow ground; see also B Liao, Dianya Fuli: Gugong Cangci, p.18, no.29 for another related Qianlong piece in the collection of the National Palace Museum; see also H Moss, By Imperial Command: An Introduction to Ch'ing Imperial Painted Enamels, pl.73 for a larger Qianlong period example in the Victoria & Albert Museum, ref.C219-1931.