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Lot Essay
The present vase is beautifully painted with a narrative scene, most likely taken from a play or a novel. The combination of a continuous scene that tells a story, together with tulips motifs, can be found on vases from the Transitional period, when the artisans at Jingdezhen enjoyed greater artistic freedom due to the lack of imperial control of the kilns at the time.
A vase of comparable size, shape and similar composition of decoration, with a narrative scene on the body and tulips on the neck, is in the Butler Family Collection and illustrated by M. Butler, M. Medley and S. Little in Seventeenth-Century Chinese Porcelain from the Butler Family Collection, Alexandria, VA, 1990, p. 81, no. 40. A double-gourd vase of similar size from the Julia and John Curtis Collection, decorated with a narrative scene displaying similar quality of the painting to the present vase, was sold at Christie’s New York, 16 March 2015, lot 3535.
A vase of comparable size, shape and similar composition of decoration, with a narrative scene on the body and tulips on the neck, is in the Butler Family Collection and illustrated by M. Butler, M. Medley and S. Little in Seventeenth-Century Chinese Porcelain from the Butler Family Collection, Alexandria, VA, 1990, p. 81, no. 40. A double-gourd vase of similar size from the Julia and John Curtis Collection, decorated with a narrative scene displaying similar quality of the painting to the present vase, was sold at Christie’s New York, 16 March 2015, lot 3535.