Beschreibung:

A VERY RARE AND LARGE FAMILLE VERTE 'LONGEVITY' EWER AND COVERKangxi
Elaborately designed and potted as the characters Wu and Jiang, the front and back faces both brightly enamelled with flying cranes, recumbent rabbits and deer playing and leaping on terraces, the tall curling spout and handle with leafy pines and cloud-scrolls, the cover en suite, wood stand. 28cm (11in) high. (3).Footnotes清康熙 五彩鶴鹿同春萬壽無疆执壺帶蓋
Provenance: J. Pierpont Morgan (1837-1913), New York, collection no.E 13
The Chinese Porcelain Company, New York, 4 October 1996
A European private collection
Exhibited, Published and Illustrated: Stephen W. Bushell and William M. Laffan, Catalogue of the Morgan Collection of Chinese Porcelains, New York, 1904, case E, no.13, plate. XXXIX
來源：J. Pierpont Morgan(1837-1913)，紐約，收藏編號 E 13
The Chinese Porcelain Company，紐約，1996年10月4日
歐洲私人收藏
展覽著錄：Stephen W. Bushell and William M. Laffan，《Catalogue of the Morgan Collection of Chinese Porcelains》，紐約，1904，櫃E，編號13，圖版編號XXXIX
John Pierpont Morgan (1837-1913), an American financier, banker, and art collector, created General Electric and the U.S. Steel Corporation. Known as 'the Napoleon of Wall Street', he was also a notable collector of books, pictures, gemstones, and Chinese porcelain. Much of his art collection was bequeathed to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.
The present ewer may have served as a suitable gift to a commemorate a birthday. Its shape is formed of two characters, Wu jiang, meaning 'Without boundaries.' This rebus recalls the popular phrase Wan shou wu jiang, meaning 'May you have ten thousand longevities without boundary.' The phrase, originally reserved for emperors and empresses, became a common birthday greeting during the Qing dynasty. The red-crowned cranes and yellow-spotted deer decorating the strokes of the characters are also symbolic of longevity. The former were praised since the ancient times for their capacity to fly high and were thus thought of being the vehicles transporting the Immortals through the heavens. Deer were believed to be the only animals that can find the fungus of Immortality and were often depicted standing beside Shoulao, the Star God of Longevity.
Compare with a similar ewer, Kangxi, in the Brooklyn Museum of Art, New York, acc.no.6914.
A related famille verte 'Shou' ewer, Kangxi, was sold at Christie's London, 13 May 2011, lot 1136.