Artist: Unknown; Date(s): circa 1400 - 1600; Classification(s): porcelain, jar, throwing, hard-paste porcelain, thrown, decorated in underglaze-blue; Acquisition: bequeathed by Reitlinger, Henry Scipio, 1950, Bequeathed by H.S. Reitlinger, 1950; transferred from the Reitlinger Trust, 1991. [C.714-1991]
Description: Baluster jar. Hard-paste porcelain painted in underglaze blue. The jar has a short neck, and a rounded rim painted brown. The rounded shoulders taper to a low grooved foot with flat, recessed, glazed base. The lower part of the footrim remains unglazed. The groove is painted with a brown line. Ruyi heads decorate the neck, and the shoulders have four roundels containing characters inscribed 'five sons graduate' reserved on diaper ground. The central scene is painted with five sons successful in the examinations returning home to their father, each with an attendant and a parasol, and visiting the Queen Mother of the West in the Moon, a hare with a pestle and mortar near her feet, above ruyi-shaped lappets round the foot.
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