Lot Essay
Two other jars of similar size and design are recorded in Sekai Toji Zenshu, Shogakukan Series, Vol. 13, fig. 123, the other from the Shanghai Museum in Underglaze Blue and Red, col. pl. 22. Cf. another guan without the band of classic scroll and with a blackberry lily scroll around the neck in the Tokyo National Museum, illustrated in Oriental Ceramics, The Worlds Great Collections, vol. 1, no. 111. Cf. another jar of similar pattern illustrated in Sogen no Bijutsu, pl. 198, and again in Toji Taikei, no. 41, fig. 6; and another in the Shanxi Province Museum is illustrated in Wenwu, 1983, no. 5, p. 59. A smaller guan less elaborately painted and without the classic scroll band was sold in London Rooms, 14 December 1987, lot 215.
The scheme of decoration employing a wave band, lotus, peony and classic scrolls above lotus panels enclosing trefoils in consecutive downward order is more usually found on taller guans with waisted, ribbed necks, sloping shoulders and monster masks; cf. the example sold in our London Rooms, 6 June 1988, lot 149., now in the Tsui Musem of Art, illustrated in Catalogue, 1990, col. pl. 56; a covered example in the Shanghai Museum, with identical decoration is illustrated in Underglaze Blue and Red, col. pl. 9; a third jar is illustrated by Krahl, R., Chinese Ceramics in the Topkapi Saray Museum, vol. II, col. pl. 581, also illustrated in Sekai Toji Zenshu , vol. 13, pl. 195.
Cf. a guan of even larger size but a reduced neck painted with a central peony scroll followed by classic scroll and related lotus panels with the trefoils now suspending pendent pomegranates sold in our London Rooms, 10 December 1990, lot 163; a similar vase with a metal-bound rim in the British Museum, illustrated in Oriental Ceramics, The World's Great Colletion, Vol. 5, pl. 26; and another example with an additional band of qilin and phoenix amid scrolling lotus in the Matsuoka Museum of Art, Catalogue, pl. 42.
Previously sold Sotheby's London, 7 June 1988, lot 211A
The scheme of decoration employing a wave band, lotus, peony and classic scrolls above lotus panels enclosing trefoils in consecutive downward order is more usually found on taller guans with waisted, ribbed necks, sloping shoulders and monster masks; cf. the example sold in our London Rooms, 6 June 1988, lot 149., now in the Tsui Musem of Art, illustrated in Catalogue, 1990, col. pl. 56; a covered example in the Shanghai Museum, with identical decoration is illustrated in Underglaze Blue and Red, col. pl. 9; a third jar is illustrated by Krahl, R., Chinese Ceramics in the Topkapi Saray Museum, vol. II, col. pl. 581, also illustrated in Sekai Toji Zenshu , vol. 13, pl. 195.
Cf. a guan of even larger size but a reduced neck painted with a central peony scroll followed by classic scroll and related lotus panels with the trefoils now suspending pendent pomegranates sold in our London Rooms, 10 December 1990, lot 163; a similar vase with a metal-bound rim in the British Museum, illustrated in Oriental Ceramics, The World's Great Colletion, Vol. 5, pl. 26; and another example with an additional band of qilin and phoenix amid scrolling lotus in the Matsuoka Museum of Art, Catalogue, pl. 42.
Previously sold Sotheby's London, 7 June 1988, lot 211A