Lot 33. A rare large blue and white baluster vase, Jiajing six-character mark and of the period (1522-1566). 42 cm diam.; 33 cm high. Sold for €44,800 © Bonhams 2025
 

With a compressed globular body surmounted by a short, waisted neck and lipped rim, boldly painted around the exterior in vibrant tones of cobalt-blue with four shaped panels enclosing scenes featuring scholars and their attendants in pavilion and garden settings engaged in various activities, all between a band of leafy flower scrolls circling the shoulder and a band of upright lappets around the foot, the base with a vertical six-character reign mark.
 

Provenance: Collection of Hermann Dobrikow (1860-1928), German councilor to Beijing 1900-1928.
Rudolph Lepke, Berlin, 4 and 5 March 1930, lot 218.
A German private collection.
 

Note: Large-sized vases and jars such as the present example were made in surprisingly large numbers during the Jiajing period of the Ming dynasty as surviving examples in museum and private collections testify. Their large surfaces presented the perfect canvas for designs that were boldly painted in shades of a striking cobalt blue. Indeed, it is the hues of the vibrant underglaze blue found on porcelains of this period that was prized for its brilliance. Jiang Jianxin in his analysis of underglaze blue porcelains of the Jiajing reign notes that the different shades of underglaze blue by the potters in Jingdezhen were a result of experimenting with different pigments which increasingly included indigenious cobalt ore known as huiqing from Yunnan, but also cobalt ore known as po tang qing produced in Leping, and shizi qing from Ruizhou, see Jiang Jianxin, 'A Study of Late Ming Imperial Porcelain in the Huaihaitang Collection based on Archaeological Evidence from the Jingdezhen Imperial Kiln', in Eternal Enlightenment. The Virtual World of the Jiajing Emperor, Hong Kong, 2023, pp. 90-92. The use of indigenious cobalt ore and the improvements made in purifying the raw ore contributed to the striking, jewel-like cobalt blue shades with strong purple undertones that characterise underglaze blue porcelains of the Jiajing reign.

The designs found on large jars made in the Jiajing reign appear to be rather standardized and range from meandering lotus scrolls to striding dragons, boys at play and figural scenes of scholars and their acolytes such as depicted on the present jar. For a very similar jar in the Tianminlou collection, see Chinese Porcelain. The S.C. Ko Tianminlou Collection, Hong Kong, 1987, cat.no. 36. Another jar of this size and design from the collection of the Hakone Museum of Art, is published in the Sekai Toji Zenshu, vol. 14, Tokyo, 1976, pl. 73. A third example from the Huaihaitang Collection was illustrated in Eternal Enlightenment. The Virtual World of the Jiajing Emperor, Hong Kong, 2023, cat.no. 101, pp. 244-245. More recently, two jars similarly decorated with figures in four reserved panels, have sold at auction, the first sold in Sotheby's New York, 19 September 2002, lot 113, the second in Sotheby's New York, 16 March 2016, lot 296.

Bonhams. Arts d'Asie, Paris, 11 December 2025