A LARGE CHINESE FAMILLE ROSE SGRAFFIATO RUBY-GROUND 'QIN QI SHU HUA' VASE

QIANLONG-JIAQING PERIOD 1736-1820

Finely decorated on one side with scenes of scholars and boys in a garden, and figures playing weiqi and holding scrolls, all enclosed within shaped panels decorated with bats and all reserved on a sgraffiato ruby-enamelled ground interspersed with lotus and other leafy floral sprays between borders of ruyi-heads above and key fret below. The waisted neck decorated with flowerheads suspending chimes, fish and endless knots, and flanked by a pair of moulded kui-dragon handles, the base and interior turquoise, 66cm.

Cf. S G Valenstein, A Handbook of Chinese Ceramics, p.269, no.278 for a closely related vase in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, see also Christie's, New York, 17th September, lot 1420, for another vase of this design.

The qin qi shu hua are the four attributes of Chinese scholars. The qin is a musical instrument, the qi is weiqi (Chinese chess), the shu is literature represented here by books, and the hua are the scroll paintings.