EARLY MING DYNASTY, 15TH CENTURY

This very rare hexagonal jar belongs to a group of small blue and white jars produced during the early Ming period, all dated to the early 15th century. All are decorated in a rich underglaze blue with 'heaped and piled' effect with either flowers or a combination of flowers and fruiting branches. Not only the decoration, but the shapes also vary. A jar of squat, rounded shape from the collection of Mrs. Alfred Clark, now in the British Museum, dated to the Yongle period (1403-1425), is illustrated by J. Harrison-Hall, Catalogue of Late Yuan and Ming Ceramics in the British Museum, London, 2001, p. 111, no. 3:23. The jar is decorated around the sides with a continuous scene of assorted plants growing from a grassy ground. A melon-shaped jar with tapering body decorated on each of the eight lobes with a different flower or fruiting branches, illustrated by W. B. Honey in The Ceramic Art of China and Other Countries of the Far East, London, 1945, pl. 87A, which was also included in the O.C.S Exhibitions of Ming Blue and White Porcelain, in 1946, no. 5 and in 1953, no. 47, and in the Marco Polo Seventh Centenary Exhibition, Venice, 1954, no. 628, was sold at Sotheby's London, 11 July 1978, lot 188, where it was dated early 15th century. Another jar, of tapering square shape, dated Yongle-Xuande period, decorated with a different fruiting branch on each facet - peach, persimmon, lychee and pomegranate - was sold at Sotheby's Hong Kong, 30 October 2002, lot 275. This jar is now in the Songzhutang Collection of Imperial Chinese Ceramics and illustrated in Encompassing Precious Beauty, 2016, no. 4, where it is dated to the Yongle period. The present jar appears to be the only published example on which the body is encircled by a band of flower scroll.