WINTER EXHIBITION 2008 - Roger Keverne

50 ROGER KEVERNE WINTER 2008
37
A small porcelain cup
Jiajing mark and period
Diameter: 2K in, 6.7 cm
the U-shaped cup is supported on a slightly
tapering foot ring. The sides are painted in
underglaze blue with two pairs of fish
swimming amid waterweeds, and the well
with a five-petalled blossom. The concave
base bears the six-character mark of the
Jiajing Emperor, and of the period.
A very similar cup is illustrated in our
Winter 2006 catalogue, no. 47, p. 50.
For a stem cup with similar fish decoration,
see Harrison-Hall, Ming Ceramics in the
British Museum, no. 9:5, p. 218.
38
A rare porcelain ewer
Ming dynasty, 16th century
Height: 6D in, 15.9 cm
the globular vessel has a recessed base, a
short, waisted neck and a thickened lip.
An S-form spout is set to one side. The
ewer is freely painted in underglaze blue
with a broad frieze of seven Daoist figures
on a terrace; several carry gourds, one a
fly-whisk, one a fan, one reads a scroll and
one carries books; they are dressed in loose
robes. Six large lappets filled with various
diapers encircle the shoulder, and another
six, alternately filled with wan diaper and
half lotus blooms, surround the foot. Leaf
scrolls decorate the spout and flower scrolls
the neck. The shoulder is pierced with four
holes for the attachment of silver mounts.
Formerly in the collection of the Norton
Museum of Art, Florida.
A closely related ewer in the collection of
the Capital Museum, Beijing, is illustrated
in Shoudu Bowuguan Cang Ci Xuan,
no. 131, p. 137. Note also a blue and
white incense burner of the Longqing period,
dated 1571, bearing similar decoration,
illustrated in Wu, Earth Transformed:
Chinese Ceramics in the Museum of Fine
Arts, Boston, pp. 128–9.