A large blue and white double-gourd vase Ming Dynasty, Jiajing Period

robustly potted, the lower bulb of square section, boldly painted with four manifestations of Shoulao, each one holding a different attribute - a peach, scroll, rods, and walking stick - standing on ruyi-shaped clouds above swirling waves set with a floating pavilion on each corner, below broad shoulders containing eight shou medallions set between clouds and lotus, rising to a waisted neck similarly decorated, the bud-shaped upper lobe decorated on two sides with Shoulao riding a deer separated by two cranes each supporting a shou medallion on its back, all amidst further scattered clouds

From the Collection of a Michigan gentleman, acquired by his grandfather in the 1880s. 

A related, smaller double-gourd vase, from the Palace Museum, Beijing, but with a different design of medallions enclosing the Eight Immortals on the lower section, and crane among clouds decorating the upper section, is illustrated in The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum: Blue and White with Underglazed Red (II), Beijing, 2000, pl. 85; and another related vase, from the Matsuoka Art Museum, Tokyo, decorated on the lower section with roundels enclosing mythological beasts, and on the upper section with Shoulao enclosed in a medallion, all among smaller shou-roundels, is illustrated in Mayuyama, Seventy Years, Tokyo, 1976, vol. I, pl. 868. Compare also another vase from the Chinese History Museum, Beijing, of a smaller size, and rounder and more slender shoulders, with the same subject matter of the Eight Immortal and cranes among clouds, but of varying design, illustrated in The Complete Works of Chinese Ceramics, Shanghai, 1999, vol. 12,  pl. 145; see also a vase illustrated by R. L. Hobson in The George Eumorfopoulos Collection, London, 1927, pl. 1, fig. D 24, of smaller proportions and rounder shoulders, decorated on the square section with medallions of children playing in a garden scene, and on the globular section with the Eight Immortals paying tribute to Shoulao. A similar vase, but decorated on the lower section with large roundels enclosing an image of Shoulao, among several smaller shou-roundels, with the upper section decorated with xi-roundels among smaller shou-roundels, was sold by Christie’s London, 9th June 1997, lot 67.