China, Wanli Period (1572 – 1620)Dimensions: 5 1/8"(13 cm) H, 4 7/8"(12.3 cm) diaElongated bell form cup with everted rim on a splayed footring, deep underglaze cobalt blue painting, the rim interior with a tendril wave pattern repeated at the foot, the exterior with a border at the rim of ogee floral and flame pattern above the main register of front facing 5-clawed imperial dragons amid flames and unual lingzhi cloud patterns. The underside base with a double blue ring and six character mark of Wanli and of the period.This particularly large cup or beaker is unual in its shape and size, but not unique in the wide range of later Ming porcelain vessels. Certainly by the Qing Dynasty, Kangxi period (1662-1722) the form with a slightly less prominent splay to the foot was widely ed in domestic and export examples, in both underglaze blue and famille verte (wucai) examples. But when exactly did the form of this cup startThe origin of the shape is most likely Middle Eastern / Islamic and the closest matching form is found in Abbasid, Iranian glass wares of the 9th – 10th century, as seen in examples in the collections of the British Meum, London and the Metropolitan Meum, New York. The form makes its transfer to ceramics in Seljuk Period Mina’i painted wares around the 12th century again in Iran.The most likely period of the transfer of the shape to China would be in the late 16th century during the Zhengde reign (1505-1521) as it was known that there was a strong court taste for Islamic forms – pen boxes, vessels and even Arabic inscriptions on porcelains and bronzes. A Zhengde period bronze incense burner with Arabic inscription and a similar though slightly more bombe than bell shaped silhouette can be found in Sotheby’s Hong Kong sale, Later Bronzes from the Water, Pine , Stone Retreat, 07APR2014, Lot 212. By the Jiajing period (1522-1566) we can more readily see examples in underglaze cobalt blue decorated porcelain. One is in the Palace Meum, Taipei, and illtrated in Theplete Collection of the Treasures of the Palace Meum – 35 – Blue and White Porcelain with Underglaze Red (II) (Hong Kong, 2000, p 149, no. 138), with a writhing left facing 5-clawed dragon in the early Ming style amid “fluffy” lingzhi shaped clouds in a light blue wash, waves at the base and on the footring, and the rim interior with a leaf dental border, and Jiajing six character mark to the base. A similar more clearly painted and fired example of the same can be found in Christie’s New York sale 20SEPT2013, Lot 1292, the interior with a dragon roundel in the cavetto, and 4½ in. (11.5 cm.) high./lot/lot-5719608明万历 青花海水雲龍紋仰鐘式盃 雙圈六字楷書款参阅：2013年纽约佳士得 LOT 1292Provenance: Important Canadian Collection来源：加拿大著名藏家旧藏