Lot 1046. A very rare and unusual blue and white wine pot and cover, Wanli period (1573-1619); 21.2 cm wide, Japanese wood box. Estimate USD 35,000 – USD 45,000. Unsold. © Christie's Images Ltd 2024

Provenance: Private collection, Japan, acquired before 1940.
Christie's Hong Kong, 27 November 2013, lot 3517.
Christie's New York, 22 March 2019, lot 1632.

Note: Wine pots of this large size and design are extremely rare. The design is a very painstaking but effective pattern created by carving through the white-glazed layer to reveal the biscuit body which serves as an additional, contrasting color for the overall blue and white palette. Although diaper-ground panels carved in openwork are well-documented in smaller bowls from the late Ming, the use of carving to reveal the biscuit appears to be very unusual, and no similar wine pots with this technique appear to have been published. There is, however, a large blue and white bowl which exhibits the same fretwork ground carved through to the biscuit, illustrated by J. Harrison-Hall, Ming Ceramics in the British Museum, London, 2001, pp. 368-69, no. 12:40; another similar bowl is illustrated by C. J. A. Jörg, Chinese Ceramics in the Collection of the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam. The Ming and Qing Dynasties, Amsterdam, 1997, p. 64, no. 48, where the author notes that such decoration on large bowls is rare. The additional complexity of rendering such a design on a wine pot adds to its rarity and allure.

Christie's. Important Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art, New York, 19-20 September 2024