With a peach clasped in his right hand, the monkey sits with feet crossed and long tail curled between his legs; the left hand is empty - with long fingers unclenched, and the wrist resting upon his knee. The whole body is covered in an aubergine glaze depicting the fur, on a lighter mottled ground - the only other colours being the whites of his wide-open eyes, and the yellow and green of the peach.

Monkeys holding peaches are a popular motif in Chinese art, and allude to Sun Wukong, the Monkey King - a supernatural creature who features in the Chinese classical novel ‘Journey to the West’ (written in the 16th century). In this tale, ‘monkey’ accompanied a famous monk, Xuan Zang who - in the 7th century - travelled to India to bring back Buddhist sutras. Born from a stone, and with supernatural powers - including being able to transform into seventy-two entities - the monkey had previously escaped capture and avoided punishment for eating the Empress’s peaches. Although a well-known character, such representations of ‘monkey’ are rare in the Kangxi period.

Height: 24.5cm

Similar example:‘The Copeland Collection’ Chinese and Japanese Ceramic Figures - William R. Sargent , The Peabody Museum of Salem, 1991 - no. 31, pages 80-82 depict a Kangxi porcelain ewer in the form of a monkey holding a peach.