M5866
£18,500
Description
A large Chinese porcelain blue and white ovoid jar of kraak type, painted on the body with a wide band of a continuous scene with two pheasants, one in flight swooping down between two flowering plum trees, the other standing on light blue-washed rockwork, amongst flowering peony, prunus branches and wutong beneath cloud sprays, all between two classic kraak borders of lappets and fruiting reserves, dispersed between ruyi heads on a blue-washed keyfret ground, the neck with a continuous scrolling band, the cover with three fruiting branches, similarly painted to the shoulder, the base unglazed revealing the biscuit body.
Wanli, 1573-1619
21 inches, 53.3 cm high.
Condition
Excellent condition, rim frits.
Provenance & Additional Information
- Sold by Sotheby’s London in their auction of Chinese Decorative Arts and Export Porcelain, 3rd November 1987, lot 452.
- Sold by Marchant, 28th November 1988, with label.
- From the collection of Mr. and Mrs. Lee Hills, Florida USA.
- An almost identical vase and cover is in the collection of the National Trust at Chirk Castle, Wrexham, collection number NT 1170544.1/2; a further example was sold by Phillips in their auction of Chinese and Japanese Ceramics and Works of Art, 18th July 1979, lot 277.
- The more typical kraak jars and covers of this form have large paneled registers in the middle section, although the shoulder and band above the foot are very similar. Two such vases in the Royal Collection are illustrated by John Ayers in Chinese and Japanese Works of Art in the Collection of Her Majesty the Queen, Volume I, nos. 214 & 215, pp. 114/5.
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