Previously sold in these Rooms, 12 December 1988, lot 159

This is a good example of the late Ming antiquarian interest in the forms of the 'classic' past. During the Wanli period, designs and enamel decorations originating in the 15th Century were extensively re-used, which themselves gave rise to novel interpretation; reworking the enormously subtle combination of underglaze-blue and overglaze enamels of the Chenghua period, for example, gave rise to the characteristic Wanli wucai palette, so beloved of Japanese cognoscenti, and hence led slowly but directly to the dramatic innovations in enamel technology at the reviving early Qing Dynasty kilns