A FAMILLE ROSE 'THREE SAGES' BOWL

Daoguang

Daoguang
Finely painted around the exterior with a continuous scene of three sages, one holding an arrow vase, while another aims his arrow to throw in the vase, with an attendant holding a crane, all within a terraced garden, the interior decorated in the well with a central Shou medallion surrounded by five bats. 14.7cm (5 5/8in) diam.

清道光 粉彩「海屋添籌」圖盌

Provenance:
Parry Collection, London, and thence by descent

來源：
倫敦Parry家族收藏，並由後人保存迄今

The decoration of a crane hovering over a pavilion in the sea carrying a tally, or in the case of the present bowl, an arrow as seen on the reverse, refers to the rebus haiwu tianchou, 'Adding tallies to a house over the ocean', or 'May you live to a ripe old age'. The scene is taken from the Chinese classic Dongpo zhilin, 'Writings by Dongpo', of the Northern Song scholar Su Shi (1037-1101 AD). It tells the story of three sages comparing their ages (as depicted on the front of the present bowl). One of them said that when the sea will turn into fields of mulberry or vice versa, he will mark it with a tally, by which houses of tallies were kept. Hence the tally is a symbol for recording age and the motif conveys the blessing of longevity.

Compare with a famille rose bowl, Daoguang seal mark and period, similarly decorated with a variation of the same scene, which was sold at Sotheby's Hong Kong, 5 April 2017, lot 3702.

外壁通繪「海屋添籌」圖，典出北宋蘇軾所著《東坡志林》卷二，「嘗有三老人相遇，或問之年。一人曰：『吾年不可記，但憶少年時與盤古有舊。』一人曰：『海水變桑田時，吾輒下一籌，爾來吾籌已滿十間屋。』一人曰：『吾所食蟠桃，棄其核於崑崙山下，今已與崑山齊矣。』」後世常以「海屋添籌」喻祝長者吉祥長壽。

一例與本例紋飾主題相同的清道光粉彩福海壽仙紋盌，售於香港蘇富比，2017年4月5日，拍品編號3702，可資比對。