Lot 3101. A wucai garlic mouth 'Fish and aquatic plant' vase, Ming dynasty, Wanli period (1573-1620); 40.3 cm., 15 7/8  in. Estimate 400,000 - 600,000 HKD. Lot sold 500,000 HKD. Photo: Sotheby's 2013.

of compressed globular form supported on a slightly flared foot, sweeping up to a tall waisted neck and garlic mouth, freely decorated in underglazed-blue, iron-red, yellow and green enamels with a variety of fish and crustaceans swimming among aquatic plants above a bed of low weeds emerging from the water, between a 'classic' scroll around the foot and a foliate scroll encircling the shoulder, the neck decorated with two blossoming prunus branches covered with maroon and green bark, the bulging mouth picked out with pendent petal lappets in alternating iron-red and yellow enamels, the rim decorated with a band of key-fret interrupted by a cartouche inscribed in underglaze blue with an apocryphal six-character Xuande mark.