A blue and white bottle vase


ChongzhenThe bulbous body painted around the exterior in vivid blue with a continuous scene of an attendant holding a vase with three arrows before a dignitary followed by attendants carrying fans, all beneath a leafy scroll dividing the upper section painted with floral sprays.34.5cm (13 5/8in) high.
|明崇禎 青花平升三級長頸瓶Provenance: Sotheby's London, 6 November 2013, lot 101An English private collection來源：2013年11月6日於倫敦蘇富比拍賣，拍品101號英國私人收藏The scene depicts an attendant carrying a vase with three 'halberds' (ji 戟), which is a homophone for 'grade' (ji 級). The vase with three halberds, is a rebus for rising within the bureaucracy three grades (lian sheng san ji 連升三級), embodying the yearning of every scholar official in Imperial China.A blue and white brushpot, circa 1635-1645, with similar decoration of a man carrying a vase with halberds or arrows is illustrated in Seventeenth Century Chinese Porcelain from the Butler Family Collection, Alexandria, 1990, pl.42.