68 - A Chinese sancai-enamelled 'Tradescant' stoneware jar, Ming dynasty (1368-1644), heavily potted, the tapering body rising from a splayed foot to a waisted neck and flared rim, mounted with five ribbed loop handles to the shoulder, applied in relief with a lotus scroll with sparsely placed leaves and four blooms, two seen from the side and two from above, picked out in amber and aubergine against a green ground (34cm high) Provenance: The Private Collection of Michael George Kuczynski (1941-2025), Cambridgeshire. Footnote: The present jar belongs to a rare group of large blue and white storage jars commonly referred to as 'Tradescant jars', named after the celebrated English collector and naturalist Sir John Tradescant the Elder (d.1638). The name derives from a comparable example that entered the collection of Elias Ashmole in 1659 before being presented to the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, at its foundation in 1683. Comparable examples are held in several public collections, including the Princessehof National Museum of Ceramics, Leeuwarden, illustrated by Eva Ströber, 'Ming Porcelain for a Globalized Trade', Stuttgart, 2013, no. 40, pp. 132-133. Further examples are preserved in the Cantor Arts Center, Stanford University (acc. no. 1961.27), and the National Museum of Indonesia, Jakarta. 明 素三彩贴花宝相花纹五系罐 Condition Report: Glaze losses. Chips in various locations. Restoration around rim and shoulder.