Asian Art at Marchant

A very fine and rare pair of Chinese imperial porcelain blue and white moonflasks, bian hu, each with ruyi-head terminal handles, flared rim and everted foot, painted on each side with peach-shaped relief panels of five large fruiting peaches on a singular leafy branch between a pair of bats in flight encircled by scrolling branches of lotus and camellia within underglaze blue double lines, the flat sides with a continuous scrolling branch of fruiting lingzhi between pairs of double lines, the neck painted with a band of lotus beneath* ruyi*-heads and a floral band with scrolling leafy branches at the rim, the foot with a continuous band of leaves and branches.

Each base with a six-character sealmark of Qianlong in underglaze blue and of the period, 1736-1795.

9 ½ inches, 24.2 cm and 9 9/16 inches, 24.3 cm high.

Chinese famille verte, sancai, biscuit porcelain joss-stick holder modelled in the form of Budai seated beside a child holding a necklace above his raised right knee, their faces and his protruding stomach covered in a clear glaze all on a rug form base, the underside unglazed.

3 inches, 7.5 cm high.

Kangxi, 1662-1722.

A Chinese imperial porcelain blue and white small saucer dish, painted in the centre in luminous vivid tones, with three scaled mythical animals including a qilin, a monkey headed qilin and an elephant headed animal, together with a tiger and a dragon emerging from rockwork beneath ruyi clouds, with a pine branch, other plants, rockwork and flowerheads, encircled with a continuous border of a lotus pound with pairs of geese, ducks, cranes and other birds amongst lotus flowers, leaves, arrow heads and aquatic leaves, the underside with six branches of pomegranate, hibiscus, persimmon, morning glory, peach and another flowering branch. Japanese wood box.

The base with a six character mark of Wanli within a double ring and of the period, 1573-1619.

6 3/8 inches, 16.2 cm diameter.