THE PORCELAIN MING DYNASTY, 16TH/17TH CENTURY, THE MOUNTS LOUIS XIV, CIRCA 1715

A pair of polychrome-decorated vases and covers, now in the collection of the J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles (obj. no. 72.DI.50) are set with a near-identical scheme of Louis XIV-period mounts, though the strapwork mounts to the sides are of different lengths, accommodating the variant porcelain bodies. Interestingly, while the porcelain bodies of Getty vases were 'new' at the time of their mounting, dating to the turn of the eighteenth century, the present vases date to the Ming Dynasty, predating the ormolu mounts by around a century or more. A vase with near-identical shape and decoration, but tapering to a short neck mounted with an Ottoman silver lid, is preserved in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, and may provide a clue to the original shapes of the present vases, before they were cut down for mounting (illustrated in T. Schroder, op. cit., p. 278, fig. 92).