A FAMILLE VERTE 'SLEEPING IMMORTAL' WATER POT Kangxi Modelled reclining in a state of gentle slumber, his head resting lightly beside a large ripe peach with delicately moulded leaves, eyes closed and hair arranged in two neat topknots, the figure dressed in a voluminous green robe lavishly decorated with fluttering butterflies and 'crane' civil rank badges. 20cm (7 7/8in) wide. Footnotes: Please note this Lot is to be sold at No Reserve. 本拍品不設底價 清康熙 素三彩李白醉酒水丞 Provenance: Baron Max Fould-Springer (1906-1999), Royaumont Abbatial Palace, France Christie's Paris, 11 March 2003, lot 214 (part) Berwald Oriental Art Ltd., London (label) The Marsh collection, London, acquired from the above on 5 November 2003 Published and Illustrated: M.White, Living at the Whites' House: Ceramics from the Mary and Peter White collection, vol.4, n.p, 2023, p.178 來源：Baron Max Fould-Springer (1906-1999)，羅亞蒙修道院，法國 巴黎佳士得，2003年3月11日，拍品編號214（部分） 倫敦古董商Berwald Oriental Art Ltd.（標簽） 墨一閑舊藏，倫敦，于2003年11月5日獲得于上處 著錄：M.White，《Living at the Whites' House: Ceramics from the Mary and Peter White collection》，第4冊，無出版地，2023年，第178頁 Baron Max Fould-Springer (1906-1999) was born in Vienna into a prominent Jewish family, the son of an Austrian mother whose family had extensive business interests in Central Europe and France, and a French father descended from the eminent Jewish Fould banking dynasty. He is best known for the restoration and revival of the Abbatial Palace of Royaumont, outside Paris, which had been acquired by his parents in 1924. Previously identified as Li Bai, the Tang dynasty poet often depicted dozing after a night of drunken revelry, the figure's distinctive twin topknots tied high on the crown suggest instead a Daoist identity, perhaps either Zhongli Quan or Tan Qiao. Unlike Li Bai, who is usually shown with a scholar's cap or single tied-bun and a wine cup, both Zhongli Quan and Tan Qiao appear reclining but are distinguished by this coiffure. Zhongli Quan, one of the Eight Daoist Immortals, is often portrayed as a serene, stout figure with a bare chest and a fan, symbolising transcendence and spiritual power. Tan Qiao (c. 860-940), who lived and travelled among sacred mountains, is associated with Daoist practices of alchemy and transformation, including invisibility and survival of fire and water, reflecting metaphors of transcendence found in the Huashu (Book of Transformations). See for example, the blanc-de-Chine figure of Zhongli Quan or Tan Qiao, He Chaozong and Qian li mian tan seal marks, late Ming dynasty, which was sold at Bonhams London, 6 November 2025, lot 8. The present figure is unusual however, in that it reclines beside a large peach, a motif more commonly associated with the mischievous Dongfang Shuo, an official during the Western Han dynasty, who was said to have stolen peaches from the Queen Mother of the West. The inclusion of a crane badge, emblematic of the highest civil rank in Ming and Qing officialdom might reinforce this identity. Meanwhile the butterfly-adorned robes recall the sleeping Zhuangzi and the famous meditation on reality and dreams: whether Zhuangzi is a butterfly dreaming he is Zhuangzi, or Zhuangzi dreaming he is a butterfly. Together, these elements create a rich interplay of Daoist, literary, and official symbolism, uniting wit, spiritual transcendence, and Imperial authority in a single, compelling figure. Compare with a related famille verte water pot in the form of Li Bai, Kangxi, in the Philadelphia Museum of Art, illustrated in Art of China: Highlights from the Philadelphia Museum of Art, New Haven and London, 2018, p.160, fig.51. For further information on this lot please visit Bonhams.com For further information about this lot please visit the lot listing