An unusual blue and white carriage pot, late Ming dynasty. Photo Nagel Auktionen

The compressed body decorated with insects hovering above a band of foliate and lingzhi scroll below three loop handles on the shoulder and a flower sprig on the slightly domed top beside the wide-mouthed spout - L. 18,7 cm. Estimate 5000/8000 €

Provenance: Christie's New York, 19.9.2006, Lot 257

Pots of this type are known as carriage pots or what was referred to in the Dutch East India Company records as a piss pot. A pot of this type, but with three lion-form handles on the shoulder and an animal-form handle spanning the top, from the Hatcher Cargo, is illustrated by M. Butler et al., Treasures from an Unknown Reign, Shunzhi Porcelain, 1644-1661, Honolulu Academy of Art, 2002, p. 89, no. 3, and in a photograph of part of the Hatcher Cargo, p. 86.

Nagel Auktionen. Asian Art, 2013/05/10. http://www.auction.de