48.5 cm. （19 in.） high

Sun Su An Collection ­- Property from an Important Japanese Private Collection

This double gourd vase has a lower bulb in a jar form and a smaller upper globular body with a short narrow straight neck. The body is painted with rich underglaze cobalt-blue with interlocking lotus scrolls throughout the body of the vase. The neck and the waist are both decorated with a variation of lotus flowers and interlocking lotus scrolls. In the centre of both bulbs, dragon and phoenix fly amidst ruyi clouds, all divided by spandrels of scrolling lingzhi （靈芝） fugus supporting Daoist Eight Treasures Babao. The base of the vase is bordered by lingzhi fungus and tendril scrolls. The rich cobalt-blue colour is characteristic of Jiajing period and is particularly striking and even on the present vase. The base is inscribed in underglaze-blue with Jiajing six-character mark.

Double gourd vases were very popular in the Jiajing period. As a Daoist symbol, the gourd was once believed to have hidden an alternative universe populated by Daoist immortals. Since the Jiajing emperor was a devout believer of Daoism and its magical practices, the gourd-form, hulu （葫蘆）, of the vase would have particularly resonated with the Jiajing emperor. The word hulu rhymes with fulu （福祿）, which means fortune and prosperity. The decoration is also abounding with Daoist imagery, with depictions of the Eight Treasures and with the auspicious motifs of wealth, happiness, luck and prosperity. The variety of five-clawed dragons and phoenixes soaring amid clouds are images associated with Imperial status and power representing the emperor and the empress.

Two very similar vases from the Huaihaitang Collection were exhibited in the Hong Kong Museum of History, illustrated in The Radiant Ming 1368-1644 through the Min Chiu Society Collection, 2015, p.42, cat. no.23-24. Compare also, a closely related vase in the Philadelphia Art Museum, included in the 1949 Art Institute of Chicago Exhibition of Blue-Decorated Porcelain of the Ming Dynasty, cat. no.110； two examples located in the Matsuoka Museum of Art illustrated in Dongyang Taoci Mingpin Tulu, 1991, p.82, cat. no.97； and a very similar example in the Asmolean Museum Collection, Oxford, bequeathed in 1978 by Gerald Reitlinger, accession no.EA1978.938.

Price estimate:
HKD: 3, 300, 000 - 4, 300, 000
USD: 423, 100 - 551, 300

Auction Result:
HKD: --