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

This rare stem cup is finely decorated on the exterior with nine mythical sea creatures (haishou), including a winged dragon, a turtle, a lion, a qilin and a celestial horse. The design is based on earlier Xuande prototypes on which the sea creatures are reserved in white against a wave ground. For an example of this earlier type, formerly in the Brankstone Collection, see J. Harrison-Hall, Ming Ceramics in the British Museum, London, 2001, p. 128, no. 4:13, where the author notes that the nine mythical creatures can be found in Shan Hai Jing (Classic of the Seas and Mountains), "a book completed in the Han dynasty by Liu Xiang and his son, revised and illustrated by Guo Pu in the Eastern Jin dynasty". The theme regained popularity during the 15th century.

A Wanli mark-and-period stem cup decorated with the haishou in iron-red, but set against a ground of underglaze-blue waves which is repeated on the tall splayed foot, also with the mark written on the interior, from the Nathan L. Halpern Collection, was sold at Christie’s New York, 21 September 2004, lot 255. The Helpern stem cup had previously been in the collection of Sir Harry and Lady Garner and exhibited in the seminal 1954 Venice exhibition, Chinese Art, no. 724, as well as in the London O. C. S exhibition, The Arts of the Ming Dynasty, 1956, pl. 45, no. 191. See, also, the reverse-decorated blue-and-white Wanli stem cup of this design in the National Palace Museum, Taipei, 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, and another reverse-decorated example sold at Christie’s New York, Marchant: Eight Treasures for the Wanli Emperor, 21 September 2023, lot 881. These reverse-decorated stem cups are decorated in the interior with a nine-character.