A RARE MING YELLOW-GROUND AND IRON-RED-DECORATED BLUE AND WHITE DOUBLE-GOURD VASE

Details

A RARE MING YELLOW-GROUND AND IRON-RED-DECORATED BLUE AND WHITE DOUBLE-GOURD VASE
JIAJING SIX-CHARACTER MARK IN UNDERGLAZE BLUE WITHIN A DOUBLE CIRCLE AND OF THE PERIOD

Painted in a strong blue on the upper and lower bulbs with a continuous scroll of undulating tendrils with widely spaced, spiky leaves enclosing peony heads painted in iron red, divided at the mid-section by a band of detached florettes between double lines and a ruyi- head band, with a band of stylized petal lappets above the foot, all reserved on a ground of rich, lemon-yellow tone (neck crack)
8½in. (21.5cm.) high

Provenance

Stephen Junkunc, III

Lot Essay

For a closely related example see Geng Baochang, Ming Qing Ciqi Jianding, Hong Kong, 1993, p. 499, no. 65. For a smaller example in the Percival David Foundation refer to Oriental Ceramics, The World's Great Collections, vol. 6, Tokyo, 1982, no. 41, which was also included in the exhibition, A Hundred Masterpieces of Chinese Ceramics from the Percival David Collection, London, Tokyo National Museum, June 3-July 13, 1980, Catalogue, no. 77

This type of gourd-shaped vessel, with similar decoration and a Jiajing mark exists in other color combinations. For a smaller blue and yellow vase see Suzanne Valenstein, A Handbook of Chinese Ceramics, New York, 1975, pp. 174-175, no. 171. See Sekai Toji Zenshu, vol. 14, Tokyo, 1976, no. 197 for a green-and-red-glazed gourd-shaped vessel