Four blue-and-white Ming porcelain vases. Each of hexagonal baluster shape, the broad-shouldered body spreading towards the foot, short hexagonal neck, and recessed, unglazed, circular base. Painted in uneven violet blue round the body is a scene depicting four standard-bearers, an attendant with a fan, and an official, to whom a bearded figure offers a tray holding a vase containing three arrows (for the ancient Chinese game of pitchpot, touhu), among banana trees, with V-shaped grasses underfoot, views of distant mountain peaks and a city wall, and a scene-ending cliff swathed in mist. Round the shoulder is a frieze of ‘cloud-collar’ panels with lotus plants in white reserve, and round the neck, a dentate border; above the foot, a band of stiff leaves.

Many jars of this type, with covers, were found in the ‘Hatcher’ wreck of c.1643 in the South China Sea.

Text adapted from Chinese and Japanese Works of Art in the Collection of Her Majesty The Queen: Volume I.