Live Auction 2868The Decorative Arts Sale
A rare Chinese late Ming blue and white silver-mounted 'frog' kendi
Lot 468

A rare Chinese late Ming blue and white silver-mounted 'frog' kendi

WANLI (1573-1619), THE SILVER LATER

Closed5 October 2011

Price Realised

EUR 11,250

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A rare Chinese late Ming blue and white silver-mounted 'frog' kendi
Wanli (1573-1619), the silver later
The body naturalistically modelled as a recumbent frog with a small cylindrical spout issuing from its mouth, its bulging eyes picked out in brown enamels, its body painted with flowerheads on a seeded ground below a band of symbols around the base of the tall cylindrical silver-mounted neck, the silver cover with frog finial, body crack
17.5 cm. high

Specialist note

Kendi's of this unusual form are in several museum collections, including the Princessehof Museum, Leeuwarden, illustrated by Maura Rinaldi, Kraak Porcelain, A Moment in the History of Trade, London, 1989, pl. 234, p. 181, the Ardebil Shrine, Teheran, illustrated by John Alexander Pope, Chinese Porcelains from the Ardebil Shrine, London, 1981, plate 97, no. 29.465, and two in the Topkapi Saray Museum, illustrated by Krahl & Ayers, Chinese Porcelains in the Topkapi Saray Museum, Istanbul, London, 1986, vol. II, nos. 1296 and 1297, pp. 730 and 731.