A FAMILLE ROSE ‘IMMORTALS’ BALUSTER VASE, JUREN TANG MARK, REPUBLIC PERIODChina, 1912-1949. The slender ovoid body rising to a waisted neck. Superbly painted in bright enamels with five immortals in a garden, each holding auspicious objects including a peach, finger citron, lingzhi, and gourd, one carrying a gnarled pine staff and another a bamboo stick, each wearing long flowing robes decorated with roundels and diapered designs, framed by a gnarled pine and wisteria tree to one side, and craggy rockwork to the other side, with a crane flying above.Inscriptions: To the base in iron red, ‘Juren Tang zhi’ (The Hall where Benevolence Resides).Provenance: French trade.Condition: Good condition with minimal wear, a thin hairline to the mouth rim, and a barely visible star-crack below the shoulder.Weight: 3,959 gDimensions: Height 24.9 cmThe Juren Tang (The Hall where Benevolence Resides) in Zhongnanhai was the building in which Yuan Shikai (1859-1916) lived and also where he had his office around 1915. Yuan Shikai was the first President of the Republic of China and Emperor of the short-lived Empire of China (1915-1916), taking the era name Hongxian. In 1916, Guo Baochang, an antique dealer with a good relation to the court, was appointed to oversee Hongxian’s new imperial porcelain production. The intent from the outset was that the items produced were to be of excellent quality. The biscuit used was very thin, the enamels were sent from the Imperial Workshops and the mark used was a red seal reading Juren Tang zhi. The quality of items produced was reputed to be excellent. Unfortunately, during production, because of the very thin biscuit, many objects were damaged. The remaining few perfect pieces were given to the most favored officials and are exceedingly rare today.Yuan Shikai stood down as Emperor on 22 March 1916 and resumed his presidency, dying shortly afterward in June 1916. After his death, production was halted and the kilns were destroyed, but the enamels were stolen by workers who then proceeded to copy the Juren Tang production, marking their pieces Hongxian nianzhi (also Hongxian Yu Chih or Hongxian Yuan Nian), mostly with Kaishu script. The first copies produced were apparently of extremely high quality, as they were still using the imperial biscuit and enamels, but quality fell as the quantity increased and, presumably, the imperial resources were depleted. One opinion has it that all Hongxian marked pieces are made after the actual period, and that the only possibly genuine mark of the Hongxian period is the Juren Tang if any. Still, from extant pieces it is clear that the porcelain industry was much stimulated at this time and for decades toe, and that pieces of very high quality were made, some of which bear the Hongxian mark while others are marked Juren Tang.Auction resultparison:Type: RelatedAuction: Christie’s London, 13 May 2014, lot 402