Provenance:
- With Kunsthandel Morpurgo, Amsterdam
- Private Collection, Belgium 2025
Condition Report Available
€ 12,500
This object can be viewed in our gallery.
A pair of baluster-shaped ovoid lobed teapots, decorated in overglaze famille verte enamels with various plants, flowers, butterflies and birds. They have a low-domed lobed cover with a lotus bud knob. The s-shaped handles and curved spouts, are flat-sided and decorated with flower sprays. The bodies are divided into four panels of decoration, two wide and two narrow, separated by a double red line. Each panel has a different plant representing one of the four seasons: plum blossom, peony, lotus and chrysanthemum. Around the base, mouth and on the cover is a zigzag border in green, with red hatching. They stand on three low rectangular feet, the base is glazed and unmarked.
In China each season has a representative flower, when all four are represented together, they are known as “Flowers of the Four Seasons” (四季名花, Sìji Minghua). Each flower embodies qualities that resonate with the character of its season and the corresponding ideal human virtues. The plum blossom stands for the winter, as this hardy tree is the first to flower even in the harshest conditions and therefore symbolises perseverance, hope, and renewal. The peony embodies spring, a reflection of renewal, abundance and social prestige. The flower of summer is the lotus, a key symbol in both Buddhism and Daoism, it grows from mud emerging untainted; it therefore represents purity, moral integrity, and spiritual awakening. Chrysanthemums are the autumn flower, a symbol of resilience, longevity, and noble detachment.
Identical teapots are in the Royal Porcelain Collection, Dresden (inv.nr. PO6331) and Boijmans van Beuningen, Rotterdam (inv.nr. A.1863). The East Asia Museum, Stockholm also has a comparable example (nr. BS-2307).
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