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A blue and white 'Magpie and Prunus' bottle vase Kangxi (1662-1722)
Sold for £44,800 inc. premium
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Find your local specialistA blue and white 'Magpie and Prunus' bottle vase
The bell-shaped body rising from a short narrow foot to a long waisted neck, painted around the exterior in vibrant tones of cobalt-blue with a pair of confronted magpies, one perched on a gnarled branch of a blossoming prunus tree and the other flying towards it, 27.5cm (10 1/2in) high
Footnotes
清康熙 喜上眉梢青花瓶
Provenance
Blitz Oriental Art, Amsterdam (label), probably purchased around 1996.
來源
古董商 Blitz Oriental Art,阿姆斯特丹(據標籤所示)
The motifs of the present lot invoke the rebus of xi shang meishao 喜上眉梢, which means 'may happiness reach up to your eyebrows'. As the first Chinese character for magpies (xique 喜鵲) is 喜, the same for 'happiness', magpies have long been regarded as messengers of happiness and joy in China. Also, prunus branches (meishao 梅梢) are homophones with 'eyebrows' (meishao 眉梢). Hence, the motifs of magpies on top of prunus branches are symbolic of 'happiness appears in one's face'.
Saleroom notices
Please note this lot is Japanese and dated to the 18th/19th century.























