17TH CENTURY

The unusual shape of this planter is accentuated by the thick, everted rim, and the somewhat recessed foot gives it the appearance of floating. The shape may have been inspired by Jun ware bulb bowls or flowerpot stands of begonia shape with plain lobed rather than barbed petal sides. Two such flowerpot stands in the Victoria and Albert Museum, dated Jin-Yuan dynasty (13th-14th century), are illustrated by Rose Kerr in Song Dynasty Ceramics, London, 2004, p. 38, pls. 29 and 29a. They also have an everted rim and are raised on four small feet that join an apron of conforming shape. The barbed petal shape is more often seen on tall Jun flowerpots or flowerpot stands of hexafoil flower shape, such as the examples illustrated in the Yuzhou Official Junyao Kiln Site, Yuzhou Museum Exhibition Catalogue, 2012, vol. 1, p. 1, fig. 2 and p. 5, fig. 14.