Page 42 - Christie's, MARCHANT Eight Treasures For The Wanli Emporer September 21, 2023

This extraordinary pair of vases combine elegant form,
monumental size, and vibrant decoration. The form of the vases
is known as suantouping in Chinese, and garlic-mouth vase in
English, because of the bulb-like section at the top of the extended
neck. While the garlic-shaped mouth may trace back to ancient
bronzes of the late Eastern Zhou period, it was during the Yuan
dynasty that the form became established in porcelain at the
Jingdezhen kilns and flourished in the Ming and Qing dynasties.

Five Wanli wucai garlic-mouth vases in the collection of the Palace
Museum, Beijing, are illustrated in Porcelains in Polychrome and
Contrasting Colours - 38 - The Complete Treasures of the Palace
Museum, Hong Kong, 1999, pp. 27-31. One of these, p. 31, no. 28,
although smaller (46.6 cm.), features virtually identical decoration
to that on the present pair. Other Wanli wucai vases with similar
dragon decoration include one in the Matsuoka Museum,
illustrated by M. Matsuoka in Catalogue of Masterpieces of Oriental
Ceramics, Tokyo, 1991, no. 72, and another in the Victoria & Albert
Museum, London, which appears on the museum’s website,
accession no. circ.23-1950. A further similar vase is illustrated in
Selected Chinese Ceramics from Han to Qing Dynasties, Chang
Foundation, Taipei, 1990, p. 256, no. 109, and was subsequently
sold at Christie’s Hong Kong, 30 November 2016, lot 3397. (Fig. 1)

See, also, the slightly smaller (45.5 cm.) garlic-mouth vase
decorated with similar dragon decoration around the main section
Fig. 1 A very rare wucai ‘dragon and phoenix’ garlic-mouth vase, Wanli six-character of the body, but with decoration of birds amidst two fruiting
mark in underglaze blue in a line and of the period (1573-1620), sold at Christie’s trees on the neck and floral scroll around the garlic-mouth, in the
Hong Kong, 30 November 2016, lot 3397.
National Palace Museum, Taipei, illustrated in Enamelled Ware of
圖ˏ ̩彩⑨花龍鳳紋蒜頭瓶
明萬曆
香港ωૈ得
年 月 日
拍品編號
the Ming Dynasty, Book III, Hong Kong, 1966, Wanli ware, pl. 1.

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