A RARE BLUE AND WHITE ARABIC-INSCRIBED BOTTLE VASE WITH SILVER-GILT MOUNTS

LATE MING DYNASTY, WANLI PERIOD (1573-1619), THE MOUNTS PROBABLY 17TH CENTURY

細節

A RARE BLUE AND WHITE ARABIC-INSCRIBED BOTTLE VASE WITH SILVER-GILT MOUNTS
LATE MING DYNASTY, WANLI PERIOD (1573-1619), THE MOUNTS PROBABLY 17TH CENTURY
The compressed body decorated with four roundels of cranes amidst clouds separated by impressed trellis panels, below four cartouches of Arabic inscriptions on the narrow band on the shoulder and a band of peony scroll at the base of the neck which is decorated with two clusters of pendent tassels, the neck with silver-gilt mount finely pounced with a crest and with threaded inner collar for the screw-on cap
10 7/8 in. (27.8 cm.) high

來源

J. J. Klejman, New York, May 1968.

拍品專文

Compare the similar bottle, also dated to the Wanli period, but with complete neck and minus the silver-gilt mounts, illustrated by D. Lion-Goldschmidt, Ming Porcelain, New York, 1978, p. 213, no. 233. Another very similar example was sold at Sotheby's, London, 9 June 2004, lot 104.

The inscription consists of a ruba'i (quatrain) by 'Umar Khayyam and may be translated:
'Mankind is like a sorahi (a long-necked bottle) [and] the soul like wine. The body is like a ney (reed, simple flute) [with] a voice within.
Khayyam, do you know what a mortal is? A fanus (a lantern which revolves by the smoke of the candle in it) with a light within.'

This inscription is identical to one on a bottle illustrated in Oriental Porcelain, Jorge Welsh, London, 2004, cat. no. 1.