Page 15 - Marchant 2013 Exhibition

六 6. A Chinese porcelain blue and white frog-shaped vessel
naturalistically modelled with its head looking up,
青 bulging brown eyes and individual relief toes, the body
花 with prunus flowerheads on a stippled blue ground, the
蛙 glazed openwork aperture separating two ruyi-heads,
形 the unglazed base with an openwork stylized flowerhead
器 aperture.
皿 5 ¼ inches, 13.3 cm high.
Wanli, 1573-1619.
明
萬 • Formerly in an English private collection.
曆 • Frog kendis with upright handles are well known.

Two examples are illustrated by Regina Krahl and
John Ayers in Chinese Ceramics in the Topkapi
Saray Museum, Istanbul, vol. 2, Yuan and Ming
Dynasty Porcelains, nos. 1296/7, pp. 730/1; another
is illustrated by John Alexander Pope in Chinese
Porcelain from the Ardebil Shrine, no. 29.465,
pl. 97; another is illustrated by Jessica Harrison-Hall
in Ming Ceramics in the British Museum, Gift of Lady
Bradford, who acquired it in India, no. 11:6, p. 283,
where the author states that the toad is a symbol
of longevity.
• No other vessel with a glazed aperture at the mouth,
no handle and an unglazed base with holes appears
to have been published. It is probable this piece is a
special order made to stand in water for plants.

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