MING DYNASTY, EARLY 15TH CENTURY

Jars of this form with a compressed globular body and short straight neck gained popularity during the Yuan dynasty, when they appeared on celadon wares from the Longquan kilns, as well as on blue and white porcelain from the Jingdezhen kilns, and were often accompanied by covers in the shape of a large lotus leaf. The design continued into the early Ming period, as can be seen on a white-glazed jar (40.5 cm. high) from the Hongwu period in the Nanjng Museum, illustrated in Yomigaeru Nansen bunbutsu: Chūgoku Nankin Hakubutsuin shozō ten, Tokyo, 1998, pp. 30-31, no. 4. During the Yongle period, the covers adopted a simpler design with a wide and flat rim under a bud-form finial, such as the blue and white jar painted with dragons (31.5 cm. high) excavated from the Yongle stratum, illustrated in Yuan’s and Ming’s Imperial Porcelains Unearthed from Jingdezhen, Beijing, 1999, p. 106, no.48. The current jar is especially similar in size and proportion to a Xuande-marked blue and white jar with flower and fruits (34.3 cm. high) in the Palace Museum, Beijing, illustrated in The Complete collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum, Blue and White Porcelain with Underglaze Red (I), Hong Kong, 2000, p. 114, no. 108 (fig. 1). Compare to two other jars and covers excavated from the Xuande stratum, one in white glaze, the other in blue and white painted with a long sinuous dragon, illustrated in Imperial Porcelains from the Reign of Xuande in the Ming Dynasty: A Comparison of Porcelains from the Imperial Kiln Site at Jingdezhen and the Imperial Collection of the Palace Museum, Beijing, 2015, nos. 65 (fig. 2) and 93, both have a narrower lower body like the Yongle example and a more pronounced finial.