Page 230 - Fine Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art II

This vase belongs to a group of rare Wanli mark and period porcelains which were decorated with
similar – sometimes identical - themes, some in underglaze blue and others in underglaze blue
combined with overglaze enamels in wucai style. One of the most successful forms within this group
is the garlic-mouth vase (or garlic-headed vase suantouping), as exemplifed by the current blue and
white example. Interestingly fewer of these garlic-mouth vases with underglaze blue decoration
appear to have survived compared to those decorated in wucai style. The form lent itself particularly
well to the division of the decoration into three distinct bands: one around the garlic-head mouth;
one around the neck; and the largest around the globular body. These divisions have been used to
especially good effect on the current vase on which the mouth is decorated with leaves and pendent
jewels; the neck is ornamented with a lotus scroll and the body has fve-clawed dragons fanking
faming pearls amongst peony scrolls. The inclusion of imperial dragons is a relatively rare feature,
since the majority of such vessels have a lotus pond with either ducks or fsh encircling the lower
section.

Of the two underglaze blue-decorated Wanli vases of this form in the collection of the Palace
Museum, Beijing, illustrated in The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum – 35 –
Blue and White Porcelain with Underglaze Red (II), Hong Kong, 2000, p. 176, no. 165 and p. 178,
no. 167, one is decorated on the lower part with fsh in water and the other has the same lotus
scrolls which ornament its mouth and neck bands. Five garlic-mouth vases decorated in wucai style
are illustrated in The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum – 38 – Porcelains in
Polychrome and Contrasting Colours, Hong Kong, 1999, pp. 27-31, nos. 24-28. Of these only one
(no. 28) is decorated with dragons, which, like those on the current vase are depicted amongst foral
scrolls and fanking faming pearls. Two of the Palace Museum wucai vases (nos. 27 and 28) share
with the current underglaze blue vase the feature of a band of pendent jewels around their mouths.
This distinctive and attractive jewel motif became popular on fne-quality vessels decorated in fahua
style in the latter part of the 15th century (see Rosemary Scott and Rose Kerr, Ceramic Evolution in the
Middle Ming Period, London, 1994, p. 25, nos. 34 and 35), and gained popularity on blue and white
porcelains in the Jiajing and Wanli reigns.

Two Wanli garlic-mouth vases decorated in wucai style in the collection of the National Palace
Museum, Taipei are illustrated in Porcelain of the National Palace Museum, Enamelled Ware of the
Ming Dynasty, book III, Hong Kong, 1966, pp. 30-1, pl. 1, and pp. 32-33, pl. 2. The frst of these
is decorated in its lower band with dragons amongst foral scrolls fanking faming pearls, similar to
those on the current blue and white vase, while the second National Palace Museum vase shares with
the current vase pendent jewel decoration around the mouth. A blue and white garlic-mouth vase
with dragons around the lower body, but with different minor bands to the current vase, is illustrated
in Chinese Ceramics in the Idemitsu Collection, Tokyo, 1987, no. 745, while a pair of similarly shaped
vases decorated with aquatic birds in wucai style is illustrated as no. 747. A large Wanli blue and
white garlic-mouth vase decorated with dragons from the Jingguantang Collection was offered at
Christie’s Hong Kong, 28 April 1997, lot 681.

Several vases related to the current blue and white example have some areas of similar decoration,
but have a dragon and phoenix fanking a faming pearl amongst foral scrolls, instead of the paired
dragons seen on the current vase. A Wanli wucai garlic-mouth vase from the Chang Foundation,
illustrated in Selected Chinese Ceramics from Han to Qing Dynasties, Taipei, 1990, p. 256, no. 109,
is one of these, but shares with the current vase a jewelled band around the mouth. A Wanli blue
and white garlic-mouth vase with dragon and phoenix decoration, formerly in the B.S.N. Niigata Hoso
Museum, Japan, was sold by Christie’s Hong Kong 1 June 2011, lot 3591.

Rosemary Scott
International Academic Director, Asian Art

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