WANLI SIX-CHARACTER MARK IN UNDERGLAZE BLUE WITHIN A RECTANGLE AND OF THE PERIOD (1573-1619)

The pear-shaped body painted in blue tones with two lively pairs of five-clawed dragons contesting a flaming pearl reserved on a ground of leafy flower sprays, above a band of plantain leaves around the foot, the neck enclosing curled leaves beneath birds in flight and perched on flowering trees.

The design of the present vase differs slightly from its comparable examples in being a ‘dragon’ vase rather than a ‘dragon and phoenix’ vase. Compare to a nearly identical vase in the Idemitsu Collection, illustrated in the 15th Anniversary Exhibition Catalogue, Tokyo, 1981, p.202, no.844; one illustrated by She Cheng, Mingdai Qinghua Ciqi Fazhan yu Yishu zhi Yanjiu, Taipei, 1986, p.343, no.175; and one in Shanghai Museum, included in Studies of the Shanghai Museum Collections: Ming Ceramics, Shanghai, 2007, p.56, no.1-73.

Also see a ‘dragon and pheonix’ example illustrated in Mayuyama, Seventy Years, vol.1, Tokyo, 1976, p.320, no.956, and sold at Christie's Hong Kong, 1 June 2011, lot 3591 (fig. 1). An example of an enamelled vase of this design is in the National Palace Museum, Taipei, and recorded in Enamelled Ware of the Ming Dynasty, Book III, Taipei, 1966, p.30, no.1(fig. 2).