A rare and large Chinese blue and white jardinière Wanli mark and period, robustly potted, the steep rounded sides rising to a thick lipped rim, painted with two lively five clawed dragons writhing amongst a ground of scrolling lingzhi, between a band of ruyi at the rim and a double line border above the foot, the six character mark inscribed within a rectangular horizontal panel below the rim, 43cm high x 51.5cm diameter

Private Collection, Oxfordshire

This jardiniere is part of a rare wucai group that were made in the Wanli period which were usually fired twice. The second, lower temperature enamel firing would have been for the overglaze yellow, that would have been painted to the lingzhi fungus and green to the 'ruyi' at the rim.

A very similar, but slightly smaller wucai example can be seen in the Percival David Collection in the British Museum, where the yellow lingzhi fungus stands out in strong contrast to the dark cobalt blue of the dragons. 1. There is another wucai example in the British Museum of a similar size, but not as competently painted as this example. 2.

At auction, a very similar wucai example was sold at Sotheby’s Hong Kong on 23 October 2005 3. and another damaged and repaired example was sold at Christie’s Hong Kong in September 2011. 4.

A variant of this jar with a lotus pond and dragons with a long mane to their necks was sold at Sotheby’s New York on 22 September 2021. 5. In these examples the mark is painted to the undecorated rim without a rectangular border. Another similar example to this can be seen in the Burrell Collection, Glasgow. 6.

Blue and white jardinieres do exist in this shape in the Wanli period, but the author found no direct related examples to this piece, which leads one to conclude that this is an incomplete wucai piece. One can see prototypes to this jardiniere in the Jiajing period painted with a dragon amongst flame and cloud scrolls. 7.

Blue and white jardinieres with dragons do exist in the Wanli period but they are rare - see an example amongst lotus scroll at Christie’s Hong Kong, 01 November 2004, lot 863. Blue and white examples painted with fish and Buddhist lions can also be found such as one sold at Bonhams London on 07 November 2024 9. and one sold at Christie’s New York on 27 November 1991, where the mark is painted to the undecorated rim. 10.