WANLI SIX-CHARACTER MARKS IN UNDERGLAZE BLUE IN A LINE AND OF THE PERIOD (1573-1620)

This extraordinary pair of vases combine elegant form, monumental size, and vibrant decoration. The form of the vases is known as suantouping in Chinese, and garlic-mouth vase in English, because of the bulb-like section at the top of the extended neck. While the garlic-shaped mouth may trace back to ancient bronzes of the late Eastern Zhou period, it was during the Yuan dynasty that the form became established in porcelain at the Jingdezhen kilns and flourished in the Ming and Qing dynasties.

Five Wanli wucai garlic-mouth vases in the collection of the Palace Museum, Beijing, are illustrated in Porcelains in Polychrome and Contrasting Colours - 38 - The Complete Treasures of the Palace Museum, Hong Kong, 1999, pp. 27-31. One of these, p. 31, no. 28, although smaller (46.6 cm.), features virtually identical decoration to that on the present pair. Other Wanli wucai vases with similar dragon decoration include one in the Matsuoka Museum, illustrated by M. Matsuoka in Catalogue of Masterpieces of Oriental Ceramics, Tokyo, 1991, no. 72, and another in the Victoria & Albert Museum, London, which appears on the museum’s website, accession no. circ.23-1950. A further similar vase is illustrated in Selected Chinese Ceramics from Han to Qing Dynasties, Chang Foundation, Taipei, 1990, p. 256, no. 109, and was subsequently sold at Christie’s Hong Kong, 30 November 2016, lot 3397. (Fig. 1)

See, also, the slightly smaller (45.5 cm.) garlic-mouth vase decorated with similar dragon decoration around the main section of the body, but with decoration of birds amidst two fruiting trees on the neck and floral scroll around the garlic-mouth, in the National Palace Museum, Taipei, illustrated in Enamelled Ware of the Ming Dynasty, Book III, Hong Kong, 1966, Wanli ware, pl. 1.