LATE 16TH/EARLY 17TH CENTURY

A close prototype has proved elusive for what appears to be an unrecorded ewer. Certainly aspects of Middle Eastern, and in particular Persian, ceramics could possibly have influenced the Chinese potter of this ewer. The elegant body with its unsually tall elongated form may well have been inspired by 13th Century Kashan or 14th Century Sultanabad 'cock's head' ewers, and the mask below the spout may have been taken from kashkuls (wine flasks) found in 13th Century Kashan pottery. As far as the painted decoration is concerned, similar petal motifs were certainly popular on both Chinese Xuande and 14th Century Sultanabad vessels, and the inverted blue and white motifs are found in turquoise and black in Kashan or Sultanabad pottery.

See also the probably German stoneware ewer of similar form and with similar-looking decoration in a still life by N. Gillis, dated 1611, illustrated by D. F. Lunsingh Scheurleer, Chinese Export Porcelain, 1974, fig.14.