Lot 271
271
A LATE MING BLUE AND WHITE GU-SHAPED BEAKER VASE

Details
A LATE MING BLUE AND WHITE GU-SHAPED BEAKER VASE
WANLI SIX-CHARACTER MARK WITHIN A DOUBLE CIRCLE AND OF THE PERIOD

Of squat form following a metal prototype, painted on the bulbous central section with a phoenix on one side and a dragon on the other divided by vertical flanges, the flaring neck with peony rising from rockwork divided by further vertical flanges, the spreading foot with stylized clouds and flowerheads
8¼in. (21cm.) high

Lot Essay

A very similar Wanli-marked beaker vase is in the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, illustrated in Oriental Ceramics, the World's Great Collections, vol. 10, Tokyo, no. 239; and another decorated with a landscape panel on the central section is in Masterworks of Chinese Porcelain in the National Palace Museum, Taipei, 1969, no. 36. Compare, also, a Jiajing-marked example, of more slender proportions and painted primarily with dragons, illustrated by Anthony du Boulay, Christie's Pictorial History of Chinese Ceramics, New Jersy, 1984, p. 165, no. 15