Lot 2802. A large wucai 'dragon and phoenix' gu-form vase, Wanli six-character mark in underglaze blue in a line and of the period (1573-1620); 85.3 cm high, wood stand. Price realised HKD 693,000 (Estimate HKD 300,000 – HKD 500,000). © Christie's Images Ltd 2023.

Provenance: Offered at Sotheby’s Hong Kong, 26 October 2003, lot 78.

Note: The current vase is divided into three sections, where the middle and bottom sections are further divided into six facets by vertical flanges. Each facet is decorated with a dragon and a phoenix pursuing a flaming pearl. The six-character mark is inscribed at the top of the trumpet section below the ruyi band around the flaring mouth. The neck is incised with a later inscription dedicating the vase to Mount Fo in the autumn months of cyclical year of guihai. 

The present vase took inspiration fr.om the archaic ritual bronze form known as a gu. Wanli mark-and-period vases of this form, size and decoration are extremely rare. A smaller Wanli-marked wucai gu-form vase without flanges and decorated with dragons and birds is in the Palace Museum, Beijing, illustrated in The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum, Porcelains in Polychrome and Contrasting Colours, Hong Kong, 1999, p. 37, no. 34. Another Wanli-marked blue and white gu-form vase with eight panels, each decorated with mythical beasts, is also in the Palace Museum, Beijing, included in the museum's digital archive, see reference number: xin000082476. 

See a related Wanli-marked wucai garlic-mouth vase with a similar decoration of dragon and phoenix, sold at Christie’s Hong Kong, 30 November 2016, lot 3397.

Christie's. IMPORTANT CHINESE CERAMICS AND WORKS OF ART, Hong Kong, 30.11.2023