A pair of Chinese 'Seven Scholars in a Bamboo Grove' blue and white bottle vases

A pair of Chinese 'Seven Scholars in a Bamboo Grove' blue and white bottle vases, Chongzhen, circa 1640, the ovoid bodies painted with seven scholars, some playing instruments, playing games or reading scrolls, with tall cylindrical garlic necks decorated with upright stylised tulip stems, 36 cm. high (2)Provenance: Property from the collection of the late Countess Veronica Munster 1932-2019. Countess Veronica Munster, born Veronica Naylor-Leyland in 1932, was the only daughter of Sir Albert Edward Herbert Naylor-Leyland, and Marguerite de Belabre. She grew up in their family home, Nantclwyd Hall in Wales, as well as Hyde Park House in Albert Gate, Knightsbridge. When Veronica married Count Peter Munster in 1955, they moved to Germany and spent their married years restoring his ancestral home, Schloss Derneburg, near Hanover. Veronica, Peter and their children lived at Derneburg in apartments decorated in the English style, furnished with the collections amassed by their ancestors. In 1975 Schloss Derneburg was sold, and Countess Munster moved to London where she resided until her death in 2019. Many items came with her from Derneburg. Schloss Derneburg is now an art museum owned by the Hall Art Foundation.Compare with a similar example in the Cologne Museum, Museum für Ostasiatische Kunst, Inv.-Nr. DL 99,3 and that example illustrated: Köln MOK, Weißes Gold, 2015, Katalog-Nr. 80 and China und die Hoffnung auf Glück, Heidelberg 2000, Katalog-Nr. 44, S. 152 f.明崇祯 青花竹林七贤图蒜头瓶一对拍品来源：英国女爵Veronica Munster（1932-2019）私人珍藏Condition Report: one vase with clean break to top section of neck above garlic area and glued back and with vertical 6cm hair crack running from rim down neck and two other surface cracks which appear to be in the glaze and firing faults and firing cracks to foot rim one vase with extensive restoration to neck which looks to have been broken in several pieces and restored and looking at the inside of the neck original pieces would appear to be present but some over painted otherwise with typical firing blemishes and firing crack to foot rim Condition Report Disclaimer