Footnotes

• 清嘉慶 粉彩浮雕慶春節圖瓶
  
  Provenance: a European private collection
  
  來源：歐洲私人收藏
  
  The present vase is similar in size and style of decoration to a famille rose vase, decorated in relief with children at play, Jiaqing, illustrated in The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum: Porcelains with Cloisonné Enamel Decoration and Famille Rose Decoration, Hong Kong, 1999, pl.168. For another related famille rose vase, Jiaqing, with a descending phonix and boys in relief, see The Prime Cultural Relics Collected by Shenyang Imperial Palace Museum: Chinaware, vol.II, 2007, p.241. pl.6.
  
  The theme finely represented around the vase is that of Chunjie 春節, Chinese New Year, also known as the Spring festival. Compare a painting by Huang Juan (active 1630-1656), Women Enjoying the Spring Festival, dated 1636, illustrated by S.McCausland and L.Ling in Telling Images of China: Narrative and Figure Paintings 15th-20th Century from the Shanghai Museum, London, 2010, pl.13. The painting, similarly to the vase, depicts groups of court ladies engaged in leisurely pursuits including looking out from a veranda by the lakeside towards ladies in boats, conversing, and playing musical instruments.
  
  The vase is further illustrated with ladies playing weiqi, painting and looking at a scroll, which together with the scenes of playing zither, are known as the Four Arts of the Scholar (qin qi shu hua).