35
A very fine and unusual porcelain wine jar (guan), the well-rounded sides rise from a spreading slightly recessed foot and terminate in a short neck with a rolled lip. The body is freely painted in underglaze blue with a continuous scene of Immortals at various pursuits, including playing weiqi, and attendants, one of whom carries a wrapped qin, all in a garden setting with a deer, a crane, rocks, a large knotty pine, lingzhi fungus and other plants, with clouds above. Below is a band of upright stiff leaves, the shoulder is painted with four floral cartouches alternating with large flowerheads reserved against a floral diaper, and with trellis pattern to the neck.
Ming dynasty, late 15th century
Height: 14 3/4”, 37.5 cm
For similar examples, see Bushell, Chinese Art, Vol. II, fig. 18; He, Chinese Ceramics: The New Standard Guide, no. 412, p. 222; Wang, Underglaze Blue and Red, no. 90, pp. 114-5 and no. 119, p. 138; and Rawson, The British Museum Book of Chinese Art, fig. 163, p. 223.
