A FINE LARGE BLUE AND WHITE 'HUNDRED DEER' JAR

17TH CENTURY

Details

A FINE LARGE BLUE AND WHITE 'HUNDRED DEER' JAR
17th century
Vividly and freely painted around the thickly potted sides in various shades of cobalt blue, with groups of deer frolicking in a mountainous landscape with tree stumps and swirling clouds, the short neck and lipped rim with alternating butterflies and blossoming prunus sprays within double bands, the foot with a simplified lappet band, the base unglazed, rim frits
21.5/8 in. (55 cm.) high, wood box

Lot Essay

Compare the pair of blue and white jars and covers of very similar design, but without the lappet band at the foot, in the Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities, Stockholm, illustrated in Oriental Ceramics, Kodansha Series, vol.8, pl.247, and by D. Lion-Goldschmidt, Ming Ceramics, New York, 1978, no.183, p.187 (colour plate); this pair of jars was given to Queen Christina of Sweden by the Portuguese Embassy in 1640. A smaller very similarly decorated jar is illustrated in Sekai Toji Zenshu, 1976, vol.14, p.307, fig.218. A smaller jar bearing a Wanli mark and decorated in wucai enamels is in the Muse Guimet, Paris, illustrated by Lion-Goldschmidt, ibid., pl.194, p.197, also illustrated in Oriental Ceramics, 1981, vol.7, colour pl.26.

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