### **A rare documentary parcel-gilt pewter 'Romance of the West Chamber' vase and cover, Meiping**


**Dated by inscription to sixth year of Wanli (AD1578) and of the period, China**

**Height: 39.1 cm, 15 3/8 inches**

Rising from an elegantly spreading foot, the body incised with eight panels enclosing scenes derived from the 'Romance of the West Chamber', each depicting scholars and ladies in various pursuit in domestic settings accompanied with titles and descriptive couplets, all beneath a continuous band of descending ruyi-shaped pendants to the high shoulder and lappets to the neck, surmounted by a knob-shaped finial alternated with figural and floral panels.

By the late Ming dynasty, with the advancing technology in woodblock printing, pictorial representations of scenes derived from famous legends and literature, such as the Romance of West Chamber compiled in the Yuan Dynasty, became widely circulated in printed books as illustrations accompanying texts. Consequently, pictorial illustrations stimulated the dissemination of tales and fictional scenes amongst the wider society, in particular the flourishing scholar-literati and merchant class, which eventually inspired and encouraged contemporary craftsmen in implementing literary elements when decorating ceramics and works of art, as seen in this vase.

This object is particularly rare as an inscribed pewter vase, providing written account of the date and attribution of the piece.