Jingdezhen Yongzheng-Style Famille Rose Peach and Bat Olive Vase

Eight peaches weigh down the branches of this olive-shaped vase while two red bats move between leaves and blossom. In Chinese decorative language, the pairing forms a rebus for felicity and longevity: the bat is a homophone for fu, or good fortune, while the peach is closely associated with long life.

The historical model has an extraordinary modern provenance. Before entering the Shanghai Museum, the Yongzheng-period vase had spent some forty years in a New York residence, reportedly used as a table lamp without museum protection. It reappeared at Sotheby's Hong Kong in 2002 and sold for HK$41.5 million, approximately US$5.3 million at the time, setting a record for Qing porcelain. The collector who acquired it then donated the vase to the Shanghai Museum, returning a celebrated work of Qing porcelain to a public collection.

Entirely formed, painted, and finished by hand in Jingdezhen, the present vase directly reproduces that Shanghai Museum example. The museum original measures 39.5 cm high; this contemporary version stands 39 cm. The half-centimeter difference is consistent with a porcelain body shaped by hand and transformed through drying and high-temperature firing, while the historic scale and slender olive profile remain intact.

Peaches, bats, blossoms, leaves, and branches continue around the narrow body instead of stopping at a frontal panel, so the composition unfolds as the vase is turned. At 39 cm high, it has the presence to anchor a cabinet or console, while the open white porcelain keeps the hand-painted scene poised and legible. Its appeal lies not only in the blessing of felicity and longevity, but in living with a close-scale recreation of an object whose journey from domestic obscurity to auction record and museum collection has become part of its history.

• Origin: Jingdezhen, Jiangxi, China
• Material: Porcelain made from porcelain stone and kaolin
• Craft: Entirely formed, painted, and finished by hand; high-fired
• Decoration: Hand-painted famille rose enamels
• Motif: Eight peaches, two bats, peach blossom, branches, and leaves
• Dimensions: 39 cm H x 18 cm body diameter / 15.4 in H x 7.1 in body diameter
• Mouth opening: 10 cm / 3.9 in
• Base diameter: 13 cm / 5.1 in
• Historical prototype: Yongzheng-period bat-and-peach olive vase in the Shanghai Museum, recorded at 39.5 cm high
• Prototype relationship: Direct contemporary reproduction of the Shanghai Museum vase, made to nearly the same scale
• Handmade variation: Slight dimensional differences are natural through forming, drying, and high-temperature firing