Page 81 - Imperial Sale Chinese Works of Art June 1 2016 HK

3224

A RARE LATE MING BLUE AND

WHITE DOUBLE-GOURD WALL-

VASE

WANLI SIX-CHARACTER MARK IN UNDERGLAZE
BLUE AND OF THE PERIOD (1573-1619)

The vase is painted on the lower gourd with a
Daoist sage and his attendants seated before a
screen in a garden setting under pine trees and
behind ornamental rocks. The upper gourd is
decorated with birds amid peonies and trees.
Further detailed on the splayed foot with demi-
florettes and a classic scroll border on the narrow
waist. Its straight neck is painted with a full-
faced dragon within a panel below a keyfret
meander. On the flat reverse side is the reign
mark written within a rectangular frame which
is supported on a lotus blossom above a square
aperture, pierced for hanging.
12 Ω in. (31.8 cm.) high, wood box

HK$600,000-800,000
US$78,000-100,000

A small group of these wall-vases painted with this
same theme are known such as the example in the
Shanghai Museum, illustrated in Underglaze Blue
and Red, no. 167, p. 167; another vase is in the Musée
Guimet, illustrated in Oriental Ceramics, The World’s
Great Collection, 1981, vol. 7, no. 82; a third example
from John Sparks, London, was included in the Marco
Polo Seventh Centenary Exhibition, Mostra d’arte
Cinese, Venice, 1954, Catalogue, no. 676. Compare
also a vase from the Jingguantang Collection, sold at
Christie’s Hong Kong, 5 November 1997, lot 887.

明萬曆 青花人物花鳥紋葫蘆形壁瓶

六字楷書款

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