Chinese blue and white double gourd vase, Shunzhi (1644-1661)

Chinese blue and white double gourd vase, Shunzhi (1644-1661), the bulbous lower register depicting seven scholars and an attendant carrying a qin within a fenced garden by cloud scrolls, the upper register with a sleeping hermit within a leafy garden and an attendant carrying tea above band of leafy scrollwork with flowerheads to the waist, the waisted neck with the tulip motif and pearls, the rim everted; height: 33cm. Continuous scenes depicting figures in a landscape are a common motif in Transitional porcelain, they often referenced popular plays, histories or poems. This vase may represent the 'Seven Sages of the Bamboo Grove', a group of poets, writers and musicians from the Jin dynasty (AD265-420) who indulged in drinking wine and artistic self-expression in a bamboo grove away from the more restrictive and dangerous court. Such references would have appealed to those scholars wishing to avoid the dangers of venal politics during the collapse of the Ming dynasty.

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This object is eligible for a Certificate of BADA Provenance

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