Page 59 - 2019 October Important Chinese Ceramics Sotheby's Hong Kong

reely painted with a peony scroll on the body and auspicious characters on the shoulders and cover, this jar is particularly unusual
for its lobed form and its charming cover, with the finial modelled in the form of a squirrel. A fervent patron of Daoist causes
F and a staunch believer in the magical properties of immortality drugs, the Jiajing Emperor (r. 1522-1566) favoured porcelains
that brimmed with auspicious messages, as it protected him against the vicissitudes of nature. This jar is no exception as its shoulders are
inscribed with the characters shou (longevity) and fu (blessing).
Jars of this form are rare and very few closely related examples are known: a jar with cover from the Jingguantang collection, illustrated
in The Tsui Museum of Art, Hong Kong, 1991, pl. 82, was sold at Christie’s New York, 20th March 1997, lot 86; one lacking the cover, in
the Huaihaitang collection, was included in the exhibition Enlightening Elegance. Imperial Porcelain of the Mid to Late Ming, Art Museum,
The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, 2012, cat. no. 39; and another was sold at Christie’s London, 13th December 1982,
lot 488A.

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