WANLI SIX-CHARACTER MARK IN UNDERGLAZE BLUE WITHIN A DOUBLE CIRCLE AND OF THE PERIOD (1573-1620)

The present stem cup belongs to a very rare group produced in the Wanli period and is closely based on earlier Xuande-period (1426-35) prototypes. A Xuande mark-and-period example in the National Palace Museum, Taipei, is illustrated by Chiang Fu-tsung in The Special Exhibition of Hsuan-te Porcelain, Taipei, no. 70. (Fig. 1)

It appears that the only other known published stem cup of this design, with lança characters on the interior and with a Wanli mark, is in the National Palace Museum, Taipei, and is illustrated in Ming Ci Ming Pin Tu Lu, Jiajing, Longqing, Wanli, The Catalogue of Famous Ming Porcelain from Japan and Taiwan, 1978, no. 82, and again by Liu Liang-yu in Ming Official Wares, Taipei, 1991, p. 281. (Fig. 2) A related Wanli-period example, but bearing a Xuande mark, from the Percival David Foundation, now in the British Museum, London, is illustrated by M. Medley in Illustrated Catalogue of Underglaze Blue and Copper Red Decorated Porcelains, London, 1976, p. 73, no. C601.

The decoration of 'sea creatures' is discussed by Rosemary Scott in the introduction to this catalogue, where their relationship to Tibetan Buddhism is explained. A larger (8.2 cm. diam.) stem bowl, Xuande mark and period, with a related design of the nine ‘sea creatures’ on a blue wave ground in the British Musuem, London, is illustrated by J. Harrison-Hall in Ming Ceramics in the British Museum, London, 2001, p. 128, no. 4:13, where the author also discusses the relationship between these motifs and Tibetan Buddhism.