JIAJING SIX-CHARACTER MARK IN UNDERGLAZE BLUE WITHIN A DOUBLE CIRCLE AND OF THE PERIOD (1522-1566)

The lotus scroll decoration and combination of green and red colors found on this vase are reminiscent of the design and color palette found on Chenghua-period ceramics. See a green-decorated red-ground tripod censer excavated from the late Chenghua stratum at Jingdezhen, illustrated in A Legacy of Chenghua: Imperial Porcelain of the Chenghua Reign Excavated from Zhushan, Jingdezhen, Tsui Museum of Art, Hong Kong, 1993, p. 188-89.

Other Jiajing double-gourd vases of this design include an example from the Grandidier Collection, illustrated by Daisy Lion-Goldschmidt, Ming Porcelain, pl. 12; one formerly from the Bloxam Collection, illustrated by J. Harrison-Hall, Ming Ceramics in the British Museum, London, 2001, pl. 9:94, one from the Ataka Collection in the Museum of Oriental Ceramics, Osaka, illustrated in the Catalogue, Osaka, 1998, no. 31; one in the Sumitomo collection, illustrated in Masterpieces of Oriental Ceramics, Museum of Oriental Ceramics, Osaka, 1999, p. 78, no. 54; one in the Museum of Decorative Art, Copenhagen, illustrated by A. Leth, Catalogue of Selected Objects of Chinese Art in the Museum of Decorative Art, Copenhagen, Copenhagen, 1959, no. 114; one from the Eumorfopoulos Collection, illustrated by J. Ayers, Far Eastern Ceramics at the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, no. 164; and another illustrated by R. Krahl, Chinese Ceramics from the Meiyintang Collection, vol. 2, London, 1994, no. 707.