A blue and white elephant shaped kendi, Ming dynasty, Wanli (1572-1620).
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Decorated with saddle cloth and harness. Height 16,5 cm.
Chips by tusks. Shortened neck with metal mount.
Provenance
From the Collection of Wayland Wieslander, a birthday gift to his stepdaughter on her 18th birthday.
Exhibitions
A similar elephant-form kendi, recovered from the Witte Leeuw (1613) cargo belonging to the Dutch East India Company, is illustrated in Jean Mudge, Chinese Export Porcelain in North America, 2000, p. 68, col. pl. 97.
See also a group of seven kendi of this type included in Regina Krahl, Chinese Ceramics in the Topkapi Saray Museum, Istanbul, vol. II, London, 1986, pls. 1294-1295; and a further example, from the Mottahedeh collection and exhibited at the Virginia Museum between 1981-82, at the China Institute of America in 1984, and at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.
More information
See a similar one at the Metropolitan Museum, New York, no 2003.232.
Also, see similar at the British Museum, London, no PDF,A.665.
Also, see similar ones sold at Sothebys London, Important Chinese Art, May 2018, lot 115; Sothebys London, Fine Chinese Ceramics & Works of Arts , May 2009, lot 181; Sothebys London, Fine Chinese Ceramics and Works of Arts, Nov 2007, lot 317; Sothebys London, Fine Chinese Ceramics and Works of Arts, July 2006, lot 75; From the George and Cornelia Wingfield Digby Collection of Chinese and Japanese Porcelain, Sothebys London, June 2003, lot 1078; Sothebys London, Fine Chinese Ceramics, Works of Art and Paintings, June 2003, lot 210.