Of double gourd shape, with a waisted neck and a round moulded footring, painted in underglaze blue with two continuous landscape scenes, the lower gourd with a scene set in a terraced landscape depicting a lady with her fan-bearing attendant, facing a male figure, behind which waits a carriage with a further two attendants, on the other side a further figure accompanied by his attendant pointing towards the carriage, all amongst various types of tall trees including pine and plantain, v-shaped grasses, stylised rock-work against swirling clouds and mountains in the background, the upper gourd with two conversing figures seated underneath a hanging willow tree, the terraced scene again set amongst , v-shaped grasses, swirling clouds and rock-work, the waist with a band of stylised flower-heads, the top of the neck decorated with stylised tulips and finished around the mouth with a single blue line, the base glazed, the vase mounted in 17th Century silver.
Literature
For a similar shaped transitional gourd vase see Christiaan J.A. Jörg in collaboration with Jan van Campen,Chinese Ceramics in the Collection of the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, published by Phillip Wilson and the Rijksmuseum Amsterdam, London and Amsterdam, 1999, pl. 62, p. 76.
