A good Chinese Transitional blue and white ‘qilin and phoenix' jar and cover, lianzi guan, Chongzhen period (1627-1644),finely painted with a phoenix in flight and a seated qilin with flaming pearl, in a garden landscape with banana plantains, a fence with blurry dot panels, rockwork and flowers, between incised bands of flowers and scrolls and waves, the neck painted with leaf lappets, the domed cover painted with a rabbit gazing at the moon amid rockwork and flowers within an incised floral band matching the jar, on a circular foot, 28.3cm high, the neck 14cm diameter, hongmu stand,cf. Teresa Canepa and Katharine Butler, Leaping the Dragon Gate,The Sir Michael Butler Collection of Seventeenth-Century Chinese Porcelain for examples of decoration typical of the Chongzhen period which they describe as ‘High Transitional'. These include banana plantains, V-shaped patches of grass, rice-clusters by layered rocks incorporating dotted lines or washes in shades of blue and Chunye dian (chun tree) leaves which can all be seen on this jar and cover.Dimensions: chips to inner flange of cover