CHINE, DYNASTIE MING, MARQUE A SIX CARACTERES ET EPOQUE WANLI (1573-1619)

By the reign of the Wanli Emperor, Ming potter have mastered and were ever improving their art of making ever bigger porcelain vases, inspired by the trend started under the reign of the Xuande Emperor. Large size blue and white porcelain pieces were treasured objects and exemplary of Ming dynasty achievement in blue and white porcelain artistry. Eight large format meiping with their covers still on were discovered in the Wanli Emperor’s Ding Ling mausoleum in 1958. An example with cover and decorated with dragons in the collection of the Beijing Palace Museum is illustrated in Blue and White Porcelain with Underglaze Red (II), The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum, Hong Kong, 2000, pl. 160; see another smaller one with dragons on pl. 161. Here, the two phoenixes in flight are echoing each other’s movement. Another with phoenixes is illustrated in The World’s Greatest Collections, Oriental Ceramics, Vol. 8, Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities, Stockholm, Kodansha 1982, pl. 246. All of those vases show similar decoration with dragons or phoenixes on a background of scrolling clouds and lappet bands around the foot and shoulder with the reign mark inscribed horizontally above the shoulder band. The board shoulder and elongated neck as well as the slightly flaring mouth rim are also typical of Wanli period large size meiping. Compare to Christie’s, London, 11 May 2015, lot 12 and Christie’s, Paris, 22 November 2006, lot 282.