A Small Blue and White Baluster Jar

JIAJING SIX-CHARACTER MARK IN UNDERGLAZE BLUE WITHIN A DOUBLE CIRCLE AND OF THE PERIOD

Details

A Small Blue and White Baluster Jar
Jiajing Six-Character Mark in Underglaze Blue within a Double Circle and of the Period
Painted with four fish swimming amidst water weeds and separated by sprays of lotus plants rising from the water, with the 'Eight Precious Things', babao, in a band below and a band of petal lappets above
5in. (12.7cm.) high

Exhibited

London, Christie's, An Exhibition of Important Chinese Ceramics from the Robert Chang Collection, 2 - 14 June 1993, no. 17.

Lot Essay

The rather violet tone of the underglaze blue on this jar is indicative of the new sources of cobalt on the mainland, which gave rise to increasingly rich violet-blue decoration on wares towards the end of the Ming period. A jar of this kind which reached England during this period was highly enough regarded by its Elizabethan-period owner to be adorned with silver-gilt mounts, adapting it for use as a covered tankard. See D. Lunsingh Scheurleer, Chinesisches und Japanisches Porzellan in Europaischen Fassungen, pl. 7. Another similarly decorated jar with Jiajing mark was included in the Exhibition of Chinese Arts, C.T. Loo & Co., 1 November - 30 April 1942, no. 660; and one from the collection of Ch'ing Wa Li was included in the exhibition, Chinese Ceramics, Los Angeles County Museum, 14 March - 27 April 1952, p. 101, no. 289.

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