KANGXI SIX-CHARACTER MARK IN UNDERGLAZE BLUE WITHIN A DOUBLE CIRCLE AND OF THE PERIOD (1662-1722)

The depiction of ladies on horseback is highly unusual, particularly in a hunting scene such as that forming the principal decoration of the present vase. The imagery may allude to the Tang dynasty, when elite women participated in pursuits traditionally associated with men, including riding and hunting, as evidenced by excavated pottery figures of female riders. The animated hunting scene on the body is thoughtfully balanced by more genteel depictions of ladies at leisure on the upper and middle sections of the neck.

A related vase of the same height, in the Shanghai Museum, is decorated around the body with four panels depicting scenes from The Romance of the Western Chamber, illustrated by Sir Michael Butler and Wang Qingzheng in Seventeenth-Century Jingdezhen Porcelain from the Shanghai Museum and the Butler Collection, London, 2006, no. 105.