Lot Essay
A slip-decorated brown-glazed vase decorated with basins filled with rocks and large peonies, but with garlic-bulb-shaped mouth, in The British Museum, is illustrated by J. Harrison-Hall, Ming Ceramics, London, 2001, p. 348, no. 11:190, where it is dated Ming dynasty, c. 1573-1620. The author notes that this combination of toffee-brown ground with contrasting white decoration was first introduced in the Wanli period, and that shards of this type dating to the late Ming era have been excavated at Zhushan in Jingdezhen.