Lot Essay
Wucai vases of this shape with similar molded decoration have been published. A very similar example of this size and date, also relief molded, is illustrated in Mayuyama, Seventy Years, vol. 1, Tokyo, 1976, p. 308, no. 917, and another in the Tokyo National Museum is illustrated, p. 306, no. 914. Another with bands of shorter leaf tips on the neck is illustrated in Sekai toji zenshu, vol. 14, Tokyo, 1976, p. 211, pl. 222. See, also, the vase in the Hakutsuru Art Museum, Kobe, illustrated in Hakutsuru Bijutsukan zohin zuroku, Kyoto, 1988, pl. 129. The dragons on the present vase and those like it have a wild, animated quality as they leap amidst the flower sprigs.