A large Chinese famille rose 'magpie and prunus' bottle vase, tianqiuping

Republic period, apocryphal Qianlong seal mark

Enamelled around the pear-shaped body with a pair of magpies alighting over blossoming branches of cherry and peach trees, the base with six-character seal mark in iron-red.

56.5cm high.

Provenance: from the collection of one of the first diplomats to the People's Republic of China in the early 1950s, and thence by descent.

民國 粉彩繪‘喜鵲登梅’圖紋天球瓶，礬紅篆書「大清乾隆年製」寄託款

來源：1950年代駐中國大使私人收藏，後傳承至現藏家。

Blooming through ice to herald the spring, the plum blossom is one of the most beloved flowers in Chinese art, symbolising the winter, but also inner beauty and humble display in adverse condition. Growing on gnarled old branches, looking fresh and pure, plum blossoms can also symbolise vigour in old age. Prunus is often depicted on its own, or part of other important groups of flowers or rebuses, such as ‘the four gentlemen’, ‘the three friends of winter’, or ‘prunus on ice crackle’.

In China, magpies are seen as messengers of joy, in the form of married bliss, and are often shown in pairs. Prunus on the other hand, is homophone for the word ‘eyebrows’, and the two together form the rebus ‘joy up to the tip of the eyebrows’.

This is a subject matter that became popular within ‘birds and flowers’ paintings during the Song dynasty, and was first translated to porcelain in the early 15th century. In the Qing dynasty, this subject matter was then revived during the reign of the Yongzheng Emperor, both in underglaze blue and enamelled porcelain, and has remained a much beloved decorative motif ever since.