LATE MING

For similar examples see the cover of The Property of Captain Michael Hatcher, Christie's, Amsterdam, 14 March 1984, lot 279 and anon. sale, Christie's, London, 14 June 2001. It is interesting to note that this feline night light form was used as a prototype for Iranian Safavid hookahs or kalians of the period. These soft paste or pottery examples from Persia and the Near East seem to be better documented than their Chinese counterparts. Compare anon. sale, Christie's, London, 23 October 2007, lot 161; A. Lane, Later Islamic Pottery, London, 1971, pl. 76A for an example now in the Victoria and Albert Museum; and Arabesques et jardins de paradis, exhibition catalogue, Paris, 1989, no. 128, p. 155 for an example in the Louvre.