Each boldly painted around the upper sections with continuous scenes of kneeling or seated scholars before dignitaries, the central sections with three floral sprays between key-fret borders and the lower sections with further continuous scenes of scholars and dignitaries with attendants at leisure. Each 44.5cm (17 1/2in) high (2). 

Notes: On one vase, three men kneel before the dignitary; these men carry a boot, a wine bottle, and one jue vessel used for drinking wine. This could refer to the story of the famous Tang dynasty poet Li Bai (AD 701-762) who often came to court drunk. He once even forced the powerful eunuch Gao Lishi to pull of his boots in front of the Emperor. For a jar dated to 1650-1665 with very similar decoration, see Shunzhi Porcelain: Treasures from an Unknown Reign, Alexandria, 2002, pp.216-217. The lower register of the same vase is also decorated with a continuous scene of an attendant carrying a vase with three arrows. For a brushpot dated c.1635-1645 with similar decoration, see Seventeenth-Century Chinese Porcelain from the Butler Family Collection, Alexandria, 1990, pp.84-85.  

The lower register of the other vase depicts the poet Tao Yuanming (AD 365-427) renowned for his love of wine and association with chrysanthemums as a symbol of rustic autumnal retirement. 

Compare with a single related blue and white beaker vase, Kangxi, which was sold at Christie's Amsterdam on 20 November 2012, lot 50.

A Chinese blue and white gu-shaped beaker vase, Kangxi (1662-1722), with Jiajing six character mark to the base. Estimate EUR 10,000 - EUR 15,000 (USD 13,000 - USD 20,000). Price Realized EUR 44,200 ($64,488) at Amsterdam on 20 November 2012, lot 50. Photo Christie's Image Ltd 2012

Painted to the lower section with a continuous garden scene of servants preparing and bringing food to a seated scholar, the bulbous mid-section with sprays of chrysanthemum and peony, the flaring neck with a dignitary and his ladies-in-waiting before a garden pavillio; 47.2 cm. high 

Provenance: S.C. Bosch Reitz (1860 - 1938) and by descent to the present owner. 

Notes; Sigisbert Chretien Bosch Reitz was born on 30 February 1860 in Amsterdam. Originally he was trained for a career in commerce, but at the age of 23 he decided he wanted to be a painter.
His wanderlust and preference for painting in the open air brought him to various European artists villages such as Pont-Aven, also visited by Gauguin in 1886, and St. Ives, important to the English artscene. Around 1900 he visited the distant country of Japan, an almost mandatory journey for European artists in the fin-de-siecle. For a year he thoroughly studied porcelain, drawings and woodcuts.

After his return in Laren in 1901, Bosch Reitz developed his knowledge on Asian Art and subsequently was appointed as the first curator of the Department of Far Eastern Art at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York in 1915, where he remanained until 1927. As a curator he made important purchases for the museum as well as for the Freer Gallery of Art in Washington and the Museum of fine Arts in Boston. 

In 1928 Bosch Reitz returned to the Netherlands where he lived until his death in 1938. After his death all the paintings and his collection of historical costumes, Japanese prints and porcelain was left to his family. 

Bonhams. FINE CHINESE ART, 10 november 2016, 10:30 GMT, LONDON, NEW BOND STREET