LATE MING DYNASTY, 16TH-17TH CENTURY

This jade vase exhibits the kind of archaism sometimes seen on late Ming jade vessels, such as the similarly dated zun-form jade vase of related shape, also with taotie masks and flanges on the body, in the British Museum, illustrated by J. Rawson in Chinese Jade, British Museum, 1995, p. 388, fig. 6. A similar zun-form vase shown in a line drawing from Wu Dacheng's Guyu tukao, compiled in 1889, is illustrated by S. C. Nott in Chinese Jade Throughout the Ages, London, 1937, p. 43, fig. 34.