Lot 274. A blue and white 'peacock' jar, Jiajing mark and period (1522-1566).  Height 5 in., 12.7 cm. Estimate 20,000 — 30,000 USD. Lot sold 56,250 USD. Photo: Sotheby's. 

of well-potted baluster form, painted in varying tones of cobalt-blue with peacocks amidst rockwork and flowering peony plants all set between rows of lappets, the base with a six-character mark in underglaze blue within a double circle.

Provenance: Meriden Hall, Warwickshire, England (until 1948).

Notes: An identical jar in the British Museum is illustrated in Jessica Harrison-Hall, Ming Ceramics in the British Museum, London, 2001, pl. 9:48 and again in John Addis, Chinese Porcelain from the Addis Collection, London, 1979, no. 22 where the author relates the design to an order from the Jiajing court cited in Stephen Bushell's translation of the Tao Shuo for "kuan decorated with peacocks and mutan peonies". A similar example was sold in our London rooms 9th December 1986, lot 212.

Sotheby's. Important Chinese Art, New York, 13 sept. 2016, 10:30 AM