44.0 cm. (17 3/8 in.) high

Provenance:
A Japanese private collection
Garlic- mouth vases of such distinctive form as exemplified by the present lot is sturdily-potted with the pear-shaped body supported on a short foot, tapering to a tall neck ending with a pronounced garlic-head mouth. The lower body painted with alternating pairs of confronting phoenix and sinuous five-clawed dragons in pursuit of flaming pearls amidst a composite floral scroll; the upper body painted with meandering floral scrolls interspersed with the Eight Auspicious Emblems. The mouthrim is depicted with six-character reign mark of the Wanli period inscribed in a horizontal line within a rectangular cartouche.
Imperial vases such as the current lot are housed in important museum collections and private collections around the world. Compare a similar example in the collection of the Palace Museum, Beijing, illustrated in The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum: Blue and White Porcelain with Underglazed Red Vol.II, Hong Kong, 2000, p.176, pl.165. See also another similar example in the collection of the Shanghai Museum, Shanghai, illustrated by Lu Minghua, Ming Imperial Porcelain, Shanghai, 2007, pl.1-74.
See also related examples with variations in decorative motifs formerly of the B.S.N. Niigata Hoso Museum, Niigata, and published in Mayuyama, Seventy Years: Vol.I, Tokyo, 1976, pl.298, subsequently sold at Christie’s Hong Kong, 1 June 2011, lot 3591; and another from the Meiyintang collection and published by Regina Krahl, Chinese Ceramics from the Meiyintang Collection: Vol.IV, London, 1994-2010, pl.343. Compare also a pair of vases from the Idemitsu Museum of Arts, Tokyo, previously exhibited and published in Imperial Overglaze-Enamelled Wares in the Late Ming Dynasty, Museum of Oriental Ceramics, Osaka, 1995, cat.no.22. See a related example but decorated in polychrome enamels in the Matsuoka Museum of Art, Tokyo, published in Illustrated Catalogue of Famous Pieces of Oriental Pottery and Porcelain, Tokyo, 1991, pl.94; another in the collection of the National Palace Museum, Taipei, illustrated in Enamelled Ware of the Ming Dynasty Vol.III, Hong Kong, 1966, p.31, pl.1.

Price estimate:
HKD: 400,000 - 600,000
USD: 51,300 - 76,900

Auction Result:
HKD: 472,000