A RARE BLUE AND WHITE VASE MING DYNASTY, WANLI PERIOD

the body of pear-shape rising from a high spreading foot with wave band to a tall slender cylindrical neck with pierced lotus-seed pod mouth, painted around the body in rich cobalt-blue tones with six flaming Buddhist wheels amidst cloud and fire scrolls and divided by six vertical notched flanges, all between a moulded lotus lappet band at the base and six ruyi sprays divided by similar flanges at the neck 

Sotheby's London, 5th July, 1977, lot 222.

It is rare to find Wanli vases of this type although the form is recorded in Geng Baochang, Ming Qing ciqi jianding, Hong Kong, 1993, pl. 260, fig. 4. See also a vase with similar notched flanges but lacking the raised petals sold in these rooms, 28th May 1968, lot 90, from the Palmer collection. An arrow vase of this shape with related flanges on the body and neck, decorated with six medallions framed in clouds containing Arabic script, is illustrated in John Ayers, The Baur Collection. Geneva. Chinese Ceramics, vol. 2, Geneva, 1969, pl. A184.

Please note that the dating of this lot is consistent with the result of thermoluminescence report P206c24.