Lot 1523. A rare Ming blue and white oviform jar, Jiajing six-character mark and of the period (1522-1566); 8 1/2 in. (21.5 cm.) high. Estimate HKD 150,000 - HKD 200,000. Price realised HKD 228,000. © Christie's Images Ltd 2006

Well painted in strong blue tones with the 'Three Friends of Winter', pine, prunus and bamboo, growing from rocks and breaking waves, the coiling stems forming stylised auspicious characters, Fu Shou Kang Ning, 'prosperity, longevity, health and peace', the trees divided by lingzhi stems and below a floral meander collar and upright stiff leaves around the short cylindrical neck, box. 

Provenance: Mr. and Mrs. Alfred Clark, no. 507.

Literature: Chinese Pottery and Porcelain in the Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Alfred Clark, p. 31, fig. XXXIIIa (one of a pair).

Exhibited; Oriental Ceramic Society, Ming Blue and White, London, 1946, Catalogue no. 71 (one of a pair).

Note: Previously sold as part of a pair in our London Rooms, 7 June 1993, lot 49. Its companion was sold in these Rooms, 28 November 2005, lot 1426.

Jiajing-period jars with this distinctive Daoist-inspired decoration are relatively rare. Compare with the jar exhibited at the Preussiche Akademie der Kunste, Berlin, Chinesische Kunst, 1929, illustrated in the Catalogue, no. 712; and two similarly decorated baluster vases, formerly in the C. T. Loo Collection, Paris, illustrated by M. Beurdeley, La Ceramique Chinoise, 1974, col. pls. 58 and 60.

Other pieces incorporating stylised auspicious characters with the 'Three Friends of Winter' were popular during the Jiajing period. Similar decoration is found on a small box and cover in the Bloxham Collection, illustrated by R. L. Hobson, B. Rackham and W. King, Chinese Ceramics in Private Collections, p. 114, fig. 205, and a bowl illustrated by J. pope, Chinese Porcelains from the Ardebil Shrine, pl. 80.

Christie's. Important Chinese Ceramics & Works of Art, Hong Kong, 28 November 2006