A MING BLUE AND WHITE DOUBLE-GOURD VASE JIAJING MARK IN UNDERGLAZE BLUE AND OF THE PERIOD

Details

A MING BLUE AND WHITE DOUBLE-GOURD VASE JIAJING MARK IN UNDERGLAZE BLUE AND OF THE PERIOD
Painted all over with Daoist symbols, with alternating cranes and deer separated by a spreading peach tree and the 'Three Friends', with a band of foliate scroll on the foot below and a band of petal lappets above, the neck encircled by fruiting peach scroll and the upper bulb decorated with a pair of cranes separated on one side by a tree trunk twisted into a shou character flanked by prunus and bamboo, and on the other by a similar character flanked by lingzhi sprigs, all below a band of classic scroll on the neck, neck restored, firing cracks in base--17 3/4in. (45.1cm.) high

Lot Essay

Similar vases are in the National Palace Museum, Taiwan, illustrated in the Catalogue, Blue and White Ware of the Ming Dynasty, Book V, pl. 4; in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, included in the Exhibition of the Arts of China, C.W. Post Art Gallery, Long Island University, 1977, Catalogue no. 118; in the British Museum, illustrated by Garner, Oriental Blue and White, pl. 49 and in the Versteegh Collection, illustrated by Reidemeister, Ming Porzellane, pl. 16