Vase with stand

Vase, of double gourd shape; porcelain with designs outlined in threads of clay and washed in with coloured glazes - aubergine, yellow, and white in a turquoise ground. The vase features the so-called Eight Immortals of the Wine Cup, a group of poets of Tang Dynasty (618-906 AD) 'immortalized' in the work of the poet Du Fu (712-770 AD) and as famous for their drunkenness as for their verse. Their faces have been left unglazed and they are identified by the wine jars that they are leaning on.