Jiajing six-character mark and of the period|Heavily potted, the ovoid body painted in vibrant cobalt-blue around the shoulders with jewelled strings suspending stylised chimes, above a continuous scene of lotus blossoms borne on an undulating scroll issuing curling leaves, all above a band of upright lotus leaves. 50.8cm (20in) high|明嘉靖 青花瓔珞番蓮紋大罐青花「大明嘉靖年製」楷書款Provenance: a British private collection, and thence by descent來源：英國私人收藏，並由後人保存迄今The shoulders of the present lot are decorated with the yingluo (瓔珞) pattern. The yingluo pattern derives from the jewellery of stringed pearls and ornaments worn around the neck, chest, wrist or ankles by the Indian aristocracy and commonly seen on Buddhist sculpture. It was a particularly popular design on ceramics from the mid to late Ming dynasty. It is rare for such large jars from the Jiajing period to have survived. However, a jar of similar size and near identical design, Jiajing mark and of the period, belonged to the Safavid Shahs of Persia and was housed in the Ardebil Shrine; see J.A.Pope, Chinese Porcelains from the Ardebil Shrine, London, 1981, pl.79. See another very similar jar with the same motif, Jiajing mark and of the period, illustrated in Chinese Ceramics in the Idemitsu Collection, Tokyo, 1987, pl.702.