A RARE GE-TYPE GARLIC-MOUTH MOONFLASK MING DYNASTY

modelled on a Middle Eastern metalwork prototype, with a flattened spherical body with two domed sides resting on a rectangular footring, surmounted by a waisted neck and garlic-shaped mouth, flanked by a pair of arched handles extending from the upper neck and terminating at the shoulders with a broad ruyi-shaped tab, covered overall in a thick creamy-beige glaze suffused with a matrix of iron-wire crackle with a few golden threads, the glaze stopping neatly above the foot revealing the brown-dressed unglazed footring
19.3 cm, 7 1/2 in.

Provenance:
Collection of Lord Cunliffe (1899-1963).
A Japanese private collection.
Sotheby's Hong Kong, 10th April 2006, lot 1615.