A massive Chinese famille-rose ‘hundred bats’ charger

Of circular form, decorated in famille rose enamels with the ‘hundred bat’ motif on a white ground, the glazed base with a Guangxu six-character mark in red and of the period. Period: Guangxu (1875 1908). Diameter: 51,5 cm.

The design of bats and clouds is interpreted by J. Stuart in Joined Colors - Decoration and Meaning in Chinese Porcelain, Washington, D.C. 1993,
pl. 97, as meaning ”vast happiness piled up to the sky.” The author says, ”The symbol of a red bat combined with coloured clouds represents the upper limits of heaven (hongfu qitian)”. A similar bottle vase in the Nanjing Museum, Jiangsu province, is illustrated in China’s Jingdezhen Porcelain through the Ages, Qing Dynasty, Hong Kong, 1998, p. 357. According to Ronald W. Longsdorf in ‘The Imperial Tongzhi Porcelain’, Orientations, October 1996, p. 72: “The motif of bats convey the wish for a long and happy life to the newly married couple”.