Previously sold as part of a pair in our London Rooms, 7 June 1993, lot 49. Its companion was sold in these Rooms, 28 November 2005, lot 1426.

Jiajing-period jars with this distinctive Daoist-inspired decoration are relatively rare. Compare with the jar exhibited at the Preussiche Akademie der Kunste, Berlin, Chinesische Kunst, 1929, illustrated in the Catalogue, no. 712; and two similarly decorated baluster vases, formerly in the C. T. Loo Collection, Paris, illustrated by M. Beurdeley, La Ceramique Chinoise, 1974, col. pls. 58 and 60.

Other pieces incorporating stylised auspicious characters with the 'Three Friends of Winter' were popular during the Jiajing period. Similar decoration is found on a small box and cover in the Bloxham Collection, illustrated by R. L. Hobson, B. Rackham and W. King, Chinese Ceramics in Private Collections, p. 114, fig. 205, and a bowl illustrated by J. pope, Chinese Porcelains from the Ardebil Shrine, pl. 80.