Page 196 - March 17 2017 Chinese Art NYC, Christies

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A RARE LARGE BLUE AND WHITE ‘SHOU-CHARACTER’ JAR

WANLI SIX-CHARACTER MARK IN UNDERGLAZE BLUE WITHIN A DOUBLE CIRCLE AND OF
THE PERIOD (1573-1619)
The heavily potted, high-shouldered body is decorated with a pattern of shou roundels reserved on a
ground of dense lotus scroll with small fowers and scrolling tendrils, above a band of linked ruyi heads at
the base, and the short neck is encircled by an unusual pattern of conjoined lotus buds. The reign mark is
within a recessed roundel in the center of the base.
18Ω in. (47.2 cm.) high
$100,000-150,000
Several Wanli-marked jars of this type are known. One with its original cover was excavated in the
Dongsheng district in Beijing in 1971, and is published in Wenwu, 1972:6, and illustrated on the inside
back cover, fg. 3. See, also, the jar with short neck and more tightly painted shou characters, with a
very loosely linked ruyi-head border at the base, in the Ardebil Shrine Collection, illustrated by T. Misugi,
Chinese Porcelain Collections in the Near East: Topkapi and Ardebil, Hong Kong, 1981, p. 207, A.117.
Another Wanli-marked jar of this type, in the collection of the Museum Pusat, Jakarta, is illustrated by
Abu Ridho in Oriental Ceramics, The World’s Great Collections, vol. 3, Tokyo, 1982, no. 226.
For a Jiajing-marked example of this type, with its original cover, in the Qing Court collection, Beijing,
see The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum - 35 - Blue and White Porcelain with
Underglaze Red (II), Hong Kong, 2000, p. 115, no. 105. See, also, the similar jar sold in these rooms, 15
September 2009, lot 351.
明萬曆 青花纏枝蓮托壽字紋罐 雙圈六字楷書款

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