Lot description
AN EXTREMELY RARE MASSIVE BLUE AND WHITE OCTAFOIL BASIN MARK AND PERIOD OF WANLI of octafoil mallow shape, the steep sides with sharp indentations and the everted rim with raised lip of corresponding outline, painted in a deep cobalt blue under a brilliant glaze with a scene of a scholar seated on a stool under a pine tree in a garden surrounded by flowers, shrubs, rocks and a balustrade, his long fingernail pointing towards a young attendant who may be bringing a book, the sun overhead partly hidden by clouds, the inner sides with similar scenes in eight panels, four of them showing the scholar seated on the ground and the boy bringing a bottle, the rim with matching figure scenes in a continuous landscape setting, and the outside with alternating lotus and lingzhi sprays and a foliate-scroll border under the rim, the footring and base unglazed and covered with a brown dressing, save for the recessed centre glazed and inscribed with the six-character reign mark 38 cm., 15 in.
