Antique Chinese porcelain

lidded wu Shuang pu
Wu Shuang Pu - Table of Peerless Heroes
The figures are from a book of woodcut prints (Wu Shuang Pu) originally published in the late 17th century (33rd year of Kangxi reign, 1694, by a painter known as Jin Guliang. This book that has been reprinted at numerous occasions consist of of wood block prints, is called Wu (No) Shuang (Peerless, parallel, rivaled) Pu (book, score) contains the painter's imagined portraits of 40 heroes and heroines from the Han to Song dynasties. In his forewords to the volume, Jin stated that these exemplary characters were no longer seen, therefore, no parallel, wushuang.