A FINELY DECORATED BLUE AND WHITE BALUSTER VASE

The elegant, high-shouldered form of the present vase diverts slightly from the standard rolwagen of the seventeenth century. The finely painted ‘antiques’, including a scroll painting, ancient bronze vessels and porcelains, reflect the taste of the literati at the time. J. Harrison-Hall, in Catalogue of Late Yuan and Ming Ceramics in the British Museum, London, 2000, p. 389, notes that collecting antiques and paintings in late-Ming-period China was a pre-requisite for cultured status. Antiques as decorative motifs became popular on seventeenth-century blue and white wares, reflecting the importance of the objects in the everyday-life of the cultured elite. For a rolwagen decorated with ‘antiques’ and flowers in The British Museum, see ibid., p. 388, no. 87. See, also, an ovoid jar and cover decorated with Scholarly objects and flowers, Chongzhen period (1628-1644), in the Shanghai Musuem, illustrated in M. Butler, Q. Wang, Seventeenth Century Jingdezhen Porcelain: From the Shanghai Museum and the Butler Family Collections, London, 2006, no. 13.