Pair of Chinese Café Au Lait Teabowls and Saucers, Qianlong (1735-96)

Ref: W665

£ 880

Price is subject to availability and market conditions.

Pair of Chinese café au lait teabowls and saucers, Qianlong (1735-96), the teabowls decorated to the interior with swimming fish, waterweeds and a crustacean all below a waterweed garland band, the exteriors with prunus, chrysanthemum, peony and lotus in polychrome enamels, the bases with precious babao within double circles; the saucers with flowers issuing from rockwork and a central roundel containing a spray of peony all within a geometric hatch-pattern band; the reverse with fruiting boughs and central square marks within double circles.

Dimensions:

Diameter of saucer: 11.5cm. (4 1/2in.), diameter of teabowl 7.5 cm. (2 15/16in.), height of teabowl: 4 cm. (1 9/16in.)

Condition:

Chip to one saucer with very small associated hairline and tiny nibbles to the other, one teabowl with tiny shallow chip

Notes:

The flowers on the outside of the teabowls represent the flowers of the four seasons, a motif in Chinese art dating back to ancient times. Together they symbolise the unfolding of the four seasons: peony (spring), orchid/lotus (summer), chrysanthemum (autumn) and prunus (winter).