A blue-and-white Ming porcelain bottle. With globular body tapering into a tall neck, spreading towards the mouth; low foot and glazed base. Painted with a scene with a dignitary, perhaps an emperor, alighting from a carriage and addressing a kneeling herdsman on a terrace among rocks and plants, with distant mountains and the sun above. This design resembles that of the Yao emperor visiting the sage Xu You in his retreat. The dignitary is accompanied by attendants with an umbrella and gifts; two oxen appear to the left near a cliff which ends the scene. On the neck of the bottle are ‘tulip’ motifs, with a narrow floral scroll border round the shoulder.

See also RCIN 1401.

Text adapted from Chinese and Japanese Works of Art in the Collection of Her Majesty The Queen: Volume I.