A fine and rare large wucai temple vase, gu mark and period of Wanli

the tall gu-shaped beaker vase with high bulbous mid-section painted with two yellow baskets and two blue bowls filled with assorted flowers, the gently splayed lower section with butterflies fluttering above flowers issuing from rockwork, above a floral band at the foot, the upper section with a leafy floral scroll below a band of multicoloured upright plantain leaves, below a classic scroll band with the single line six-character mark in underglaze-blue within a rectangular box around the galleried rim

Exhibition of Japanese Antique Ceramics & Chinese Antiques, Yamanaka Shokai, Osaka Arts Club, Osaka, 1934, cat.no.296.

 

An wucai beaker vase of similar shape and painted decoration, also with a Wanli reign mark and of the period and illustrated in Anthony du Boulay, Christie's Pictorial History of Chinese Ceramics, Oxford, 1984, p. 170, pl. 1, was sold at Christie's London, 11th December 1978, lot 111. Compare another Wanli beaker vase of related form, the central body painted with birds amongst rocks and flowers and the neck decorated with dragons, in the Palace Museum, Beijing, included in Zhongguo taoci quanji, vol. 13, Shanghai, 2000, pl. 129.