MING DYNASTY, 15TH CENTURY

The shape and decoration of the present vase is based on earlier Yuan dynasty prototypes, such as the vase illustrated in Sekai toji zenshu, Tokyo, 1981, vol. 13, p. 186, no. 169 (left), which has a band of petals below foliate decoration on a pear-shaped body and stationary rings pendent from mask handles, but the neck is far taller, with a trumpet mouth and the foliate scroll is in slip under the glaze and not carved. For two contemporaneous examples, of the same form, but undecorated, see the vase with elephant-head handles and rings, illustrated by B. Gyllensvärd, Chinese Ceramics in the Carl Kempe Collection, Stockholm, 1964, p. 64, no. 153; and another with animal mask and ring handles, in Zhongguo taoci daxi, 2; Mingdai taoci daquan, Taiwan, 1983/1987, p. 463.