A RED AND GREEN 'LOTUS AND LINGZHI' DOUBLE-GOURD VASE MARK AND PERIOD OF JIAJING

with a broader lower bulb supporting a smaller bulb, each painted with wide continuous bands of scrolling lotus borne on a foliate stem, with a lingzhi scroll around the waist and a 'classic' scroll encircling the shoulder, the designs drawn with outlines of deep iron red, filled in with an iron-red wash and reserved on a bright green ground, with narrow white bands left free to separate the different registers, the base left white and inscribed with a six-character reign mark within a double ring in underglaze blue

Sotheby’s London, 12th June 1990, lot 241.
Eskenazi Ltd, London.

Chinese Ceramics from the Meiyintang Collection, The British Museum, London, 1994.
Evolution to Perfection. Chinese Ceramics from the Meiyintang Collection/Evolution vers la perfection. Céramiques de Chine de la Collection Meiyintang, Sporting d’Hiver, Monte Carlo, 1996, cat. no. 132.

Nuno de Castro, E cerâmica e a porcelana Chinesas, Porto, 1992, vol. 2, pl. 59.
Regina Krahl, Chinese Ceramics from the Meiyintang Collection, London, 1994-2010, vol. 2, no. 707.

The neck of the bottle vase is slightly polished down. There are two hairline cracks (2 cm. and 1 cm.) and a 1 cm. diameter flake restored at the rim. There is an air bubble next to a trapped air bubble on the white band around the upper bulb, a few other tiny flakes or minor wear to the enamels around the body. The green ground is a little paler compared to the catalogue illustration.
"In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective, qualified opinion. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

Brightly coloured porcelains with vivid designs on a contrasting ground were a speciality of the Jiajing reign (AD 1522-66), when many new colour combinations were experimented with. Red and green enamels were not used together in this way before the Jiajing period, and rarely thereafter. A similar vase from the Ataka collection in the Museum of Oriental Ceramics, Osaka, is illustrated together with a related vase with blue-and-red flower scrolls on a yellow ground in Tōyō tōji no tenkai/Masterpieces of Oriental Ceramics, The Museum of Oriental Ceramics, Osaka, 1999, pls. 54 and 53.

Two similar red-and-green vases are in the British Museum, London, from the Bloxam collection and the collection of Sir Percival David, see Jessica Harrison-Hall, Ming Ceramics in the British Museum, London, 2001, pl. 9: 94; and the exhibition catalogue Ceramic Evolution in the Middle Ming Period, Percival David Foundation of Chinese Art, London, 1994-5, cat. no. 12; one from the Eumorfopoulos collection in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, is illustrated in John Ayers, Far Eastern Ceramics in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, 1980, no. 164; another in the Musée Guimet, Paris, from the Grandidier collection, is published in Daisy Lion-Goldschmidt, Ming Porcelain, London, 1978, pl. 12.