An extremely rare early Ming blue and white jar, guan, Yongle period (1403-1425)

Étiquettes

Early Ming, guan, JAR, Yongle Period

An extremely rare early Ming blue and white jar, guan, Yongle period (1403-1425). Estimate HK$2,000,000 – HK$3,000,000 ($260,000 – $390,000). Price Realized HK$2,200,000 ($284,909). Photo Christie’s Ltd 2014

The exterior of the jar is delicately painted in underglaze-blue with the ‘heaping and piling’ effect, depicting a continuous garden scene with leafy flowering branches of chrysanthemum and morning glory, beside rocks and millet sprays. 5 1/8 in. (13 cm.) wide

Provenance: Sold at Sotheby’s Hong Kong, 29 April 1997, lot 532

Notes: Blue and white jars of this design from the early 15th century are extremely rare, and only very few related examples have been published to date. Compare to another early 15th century example of similar design from the collection of Mrs. Alfred Clark, now in the British Museum, illustrated in Oriental Ceramics, The World’s Great Collections, vol. 5, 1981, pl. 38. Another comparable example was sold at Christie’s Hong Kong, 29 September 1992, lot 471. No excavated example appears to have been found from the Yongle and Xuande strata at the Jingdezhen Imperial kilns so far, suggesting that only very few jars of this rare type were produced at the time.

It appears that this select group of early Ming jars became the prototype of much revered blue and white jars from the later Chenghua period, potted to similar forms and painted similarly with composite flowers but in a paler blue with less ‘heaping and piling’ which is characteristic of cobalt used during the period. One such example was sold at Christie’s Hong Kong, 30 May 2006, lot 1387.

CHRISTIES. IMPORTANT CHINESE CERAMICS AND WORKS OF ART, 26 November 2014, Convention Hall

A rare early Ming copper-red vase, yuhuchunping, China, Hongwu period (1368-1398)

Étiquettes

copper-red vase, Early Ming, Hongwu Period, yuhuchunping

A rare early Ming copper-red vase, yuhuchunping, China, Hongwu period (1368-1398). Estimate 200 000 €. Photo Nagel

The vase generously painted in copper-red with flowers of the ‘four seasons’, comprising camellia, pomegranate, chrysanthemum and peony, the branches issuing from rockwork above a band at the base of lotus petal lappets, the narrow shoulder decorated with pendent trefoil-shaped ruyi-heads, below upper bands of classic scroll and key-fret, with overlapping plantain leaves below the everted rim, painted to the interior rim with a further classic scroll, repeated around the slightly splayed foot, the base glazed white. H. 33,1 cm. Chip to stand (1,3×0,9 cm), few very small glaze chip to stand, fine starcrack to base

Property from a Singapore private collection

An identical vase with a reduced neck from the Sir Lionel and Lady Lamb collection is illustrated by J. Addis, ‘A group of Underglaze Red’, Transactions of the Oriental Ceramics Society, vol. 31, 1957-1959, fig. 4c.

It is unusual to find flowers of the ‘four seasons’ as the major decorative theme on this group of bottle vases, although this floral combination is known to appear in underglaze-blue on large dishes. For three examples of these flowering branches painted on the well of dishes found at Dongmentou, cf. Imperial Hongwu and Yongle Porcelain excavated at Jingdezhen, Chang Foundation, Taibei, 1996, nos. 25, 26 and 27.

Also see a dish, op. cit., no. 29, painted with long vertical stems of peony issuing from rockwork which is comparable in style to the present lot. The peony is the most popular of the main scroll designs, although chrysanthemum scrolls and lotus blooms are also recorded.

Compare the present lot with related examples, the first decorated with a peony scroll, Christie’s London, 5 November 1997, lot 901; the second with chrysanthemum scroll formerly from the T. Y. Chao collection, sold Christie’s Hong Kong, 19 May 1987, lot 225; and another bottle designed with broad lotus scroll, illustrated by R. Krahl, Chinese Ceramics from the Meiyintang Collection, vol. II, London, 1994, pl. 646.

Another variation is the combination of freely painted garden plants of pine, bamboo and prunus, making up ‘the three friends of winter’; and for two vases of this theme see one from the Palace Museum, Beijing, illustrated in Sekai Toji Zenshu, vol. 13, no. 78; the other is illustrated in Mingdai Taoci Daquan, p. 75. Copper, used as the colouring agent, is known to be particularly unstable during firing processes and often resulted in examples that vary from a weaker shade of red to pale grey tones.

For a detailed technical discussion of copper-red, see N. Wood, ‘The Evolution of the Chinese Copper Red’, edited by R. Scott, Chinese Copper Red Wares, London, 1992, pp. 11-35.

In potting, the Hongwu pear-shaped vases vary in thickness with the centre of gravity located at the the lower body, thinning considerably around the neck. This general physical structure may explain the vulnerability of the neck area in most examples where the vases have been cut down after suffering damage or breaks, always in, or around, that section.

Nagel. « Asian Art ». 2014/12/08

A rare early Ming cloisonné cup, Yongle reign

Étiquettes

cloisonne enamel cup, Early Ming, Galerie Lamy, gilt bronze lotus flower, Yongle reign

A rare early Ming cloisonné cup, Yongle reign. Photo Galerie Lamy

A rare early Ming (Yongle reign) cloisonné enamel cup rising from a gilt bronze lotus flower. Diameter 12 cm Height 10 cm. Price on request

Fine Art Asia 2014. Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre from Saturday 4th to Tuesday 7th October. Galerie Lamy. Rue Ernest Allard 32, 1000 Brussels, Belgium

A rare Early Ming blue and white ‘Lotus Bouquet’ dish, Yongle period (1403-1425)

Étiquettes

blue and white 'Lotus Bouquet' dish, Blue-and-White, Early Ming, Yongle Period

A rare Early Ming blue and white ‘Lotus Bouquet’ dish, Yongle period (1403-1425).  Photo Christie’s Image Ltd 2014

The dish is decorated in rich cobalt blue characteristically ‘heaped and pile’ with a central ribbon-tied lotus plant bouquet incorporating saggitaria and a stalk of millet, encircled by a band of composite foliate scroll composed of thirteen blossoms. A narrow band of classic scroll at the rim is repeated on the exterior above a similar frieze and a border of key fret. All are within line borders and the base is unglazed. 12½ in. (30.8 cm.) diam. Estimate $150,000 – $200,000. Price Realized $389,000

Provenance: Mr. and Mrs. John Vincent Collection, Berkeley, California.
Louis Pappas Oriental Arts, San Francisco, 1964.
John Yeon Collection, Portland, Oregon.

The design on this dish is typically described as ‘lotus bouquet,’ as the majority of the flowers, pods and leaves belong to the auspicious lotus plant. However, the bouquet also includes additional auspicious plants, such as the arrow-shapedsaggitaria sagittifolia, a symbol of both generosity and of food in a time of shortage, and a stalk of millet, symbolizing an abundance of grain. Dishes with this ‘lotus bouquet’ design belong to an important group of early Ming blue and white wares, together with ‘grape’ dishes, ‘melon’ dishes, and ‘dragon’ dishes. See J.A. Pope, Chinese Porcelains from the Ardebil Shrine, Washington, D.C., 1956, p. 92, where he discusses the thirty-four ‘bouquet’ dishes of varying size and with varying borders in the Ardebil Collection, showing the wide range of intensity of cobalt within the dishes and the diversity of decoration. Some of these variations can be seen, ibid, on pls. 30 and 31.
A dish of this shape and design was excavated from the Yongle stratum of the site of the imperial kiln at Jingdezhen in 1994, and is illustrated in Imperial Hongwu and Yongle Porcelain excavated at Jingdezhen, Chang Foundation, Taipei, 1996, pp. 144-5, no. 40. Compare, also, two other dishes of this pattern, but of slightly larger size: one in the National Palace Museum, Taipei, (34.2 cm. diam.), illustrated in Porcelain of the National Palace Museum: Blue-and-White ware of the Ming Dynasty, Book II, Part 2, Hong Kong, 1963, pp. 146-7, pl. 59; and one in The Tianminlou Foundation, (34.7 cm. diam.), illustrated in the catalogue of the Min Chiu Society exhibition, Joined Colors, Sackler Gallery, Washington, DC, 1993, p. 78, no. 7.

Christie’s. FINE CHINESE CERAMICS AND WORKS OF ART, 18 – 19 September 2014, New York, Rockefeller Plaza.