Lot 3224. A rare late Ming blue and white double-gourd wall-vase, Wanli six-character mark in underglaze blue and of the period (1573-1609). Estimate HK$600,000 – HK$800,000 (US$77,602 - $103,470). Price realised HKD 750,000 (USD 96,973). Photo Christie's Image Ltd 2016. 

The vase is painted on the lower gourd with a Daoist sage and his attendants seated before a screen in a garden setting under pine trees and behind ornamental rocks. The upper gourd is decorated with birds amid peonies and trees. Further detailed on the splayed foot with demi-florettes and a classic scroll border on the narrow waist. Its straight neck is painted with a full-faced dragon within a panel below a key fret meander. On the flat reverse side is the reign mark written within a rectangular frame which is supported on a lotus blossom above a square aperture, pierced for hanging. 12 1/2 in. (31.8 cm.) high, wood box.

Notes: A small group of these wall-vases painted with this same theme are known such as the example in the Shanghai Museum, illustrated in Underglaze Blue and Red, no. 167, p. 167; another vase is in the Musée Guimet is illustrated inOriental Ceramics, The World's Great Collection, 1981, vol. 7, no. 82; a third example from John Sparks, London, was included in the Marco Polo Seventh Centenary Exhibition, Mostra d’arte Cinese Venice, 1954, Catalogue, no. 676. Compare also a vase from the Jingguantang Collection, sold at Christie’s Hong Kong, 5 November 1997, lot 887.

Christie's. THE IMPERIAL SALE / IMPORTANT CHINESE CERAMICS & WORKS OF ART, 1 June 2016, Convention Hall