A pair of unusual pear-shaped vases with famille verte enamels on a white ground, handsomely decorated with highly auspicious figures and symbols. The bulbous body stands on a high foot , the tall neck gently flaring out to a wide mouth. On both sides is a large Chinese character for Shou and Fu, filled with a diaper pattern and outlined in black. It is overlaid with a large circular reserve medallion with Daoist figures. The everted mouth has a band of lingzhi fungus alternating in yellow, aubergine and green, with a row of black dots below. The neck is decorated with two flying cranes holding a branch with a peach, alternating with a clouds clusters; clouds being the symbol of the celestial realms and the cranes emblems of longevity. The lower neck has another four adjoined ornamental bands in green, yellow and black. The vases stand on a high foot, with light green overlapping stylised leaves. Around the slightly flaring foot rim, are another three pattern bands in yellow, aubergine and dark green.
Overlaying the Shou (longevity) characters, is a scene with the Daoist Star Gods with three boys. The figure of Shoulao (God of Longevity), offers a large peach – the magical immortality fruit - to one the boys. The other two figures are Fuxing (God of blessings holding a child) and Luxing (God of Rank and Emolument holding a sceptre). In popular religion, these Daoist deities were believed to help you with happiness, long life and wealth. The panels over the large characters for Fu (happiness) has a scene of the Eight Daoist immortals in a garden with a large pine tree. Each immortal can be identified by their appearance and the attribute they carry.
On the underside these vases have fabulously preserved labels from the Garland, as well as the Morgan collections. There are also several additional unidentified inventory numbers and labels. They were also on loan to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, first from James Garland and later J.P. Morgan.
The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston has a famille verte rouleau vase, with similar bold decoration on the body (acc.nr. 21.2283). The Palace Museum, Beijing also has a rouleau vase, decorated with large character overlayed with panels. The Jie Rui Tang Collection, USA also has a pear-shaped vase decorated in famille verte enamels(nr. 1330). The Burrell Collection, Glasgow has a similar shaped vase, but in underglaze cobalt blue (acc.nr. 38.1043).
