A blue and white 'three friends of winter' 'shou' jar mark and period of Wanli

well potted with rounded sides rising to high shoulders and a tapered cylindrical neck, the body painted with the Three Friends of Winter motif, with a pine, a bamboo and two prunus trees issuing from rockwork, their main stems each growing in the form of a 'shou' character, each seperated by leafy sprigs of lingzhi fungus, all below a band of lingzhi on a meandering leafy stem at the shoulder, the neck encircled by a band of stiff upright leaves, the base inscribed with the six-character mark in underglaze-blue within double circles  

A Wanli jar of this design from the Toeg collection, sold in these rooms, 1st April 1974, lot 217, was included in the exhibition Chinese Blue and White, Oriental Ceramic Society, London, 1954, cat.no. 182. See also a related jar illustrated in Cecile and Michael Beurdeley, La Ceramique Chinoise, Fribourg, 1974, col. pl. 60; and one sold in our London rooms, 12th November 2003, lot 159.