Lot 5. The Au Bak Ling Collection. A very rare blue and white pear shaped bottle vase, yuhuchunping, Yongle period (1403-1425), 25.5 cm high. Price realised HKD 27,600,000 (Estimate HKD 18,000,000-25,000,000). © Christie's Images Ltd 2024.

The vase is finely potted with a pear-shaped body gently tapering to an everted rim and supported on a slightly splayed foot, boldly painted on the exterior in cobalt of sapphire blue tone with a broad band containing an undulating vine growing peony, gardenia, chrysanthemum and camellia blooms, buds and leaves, above a band of overlapping ruyi heads around the base, below borders enclosing foliate scroll, key fret and trefoils on the waisted neck.

Provenance: Sold at Christie’s London, 10 December 1990, lot 167 (illustrated on the front cover).

Exhibited: Royal Academy of Arts, 100 Masterpieces from the Au Bak Ling Collection, London, 1998, no. 42

An Elegant and Very Rare Yongle Pear-shaped Vase
Rosemary Scott, Independent Scholar

This Yongle pear-shaped vase, yuhuchunping, exemplifies the height of elegance achieved by a form that came to prominence in porcelain during the Yuan dynasty, underwent some proportional changes in the first Ming dynasty reign of the Hongwu emperor, and then, in the Yongle reign, developed its classic shape. Having achieved an ideal profile, vases of this type also benefited from highly refined white body material, and rich cobalt blue used for their decoration. In this decoration, the early 15^th century ceramic artists enjoyed a greater range of motifs – particularly those of botanical origin - which they brought to visual prominence through a reduction in the size and number of subsidiary decorative bands.

It is noteworthy that relatively few Yongle pear-shaped vases have survived. Indeed, fewer pear-shaped vases than pear-shaped ewers seem to have been preserved into the present day. The majority of published Yongle pear-shaped vases bear floral designs in their major decorative band, but the bold scroll encircling the current vase is a rare example of a mixed floral scroll with four major flowers. These are peony, gardenia, chrysanthemum, and camellia – probably intended to represent the ‘flowers of the four seasons’. Peony would represent spring, gardenia would represent summer, chrysanthemum would represent autumn, and camellia would represent winter. It is more common for lotus to represent summer, but on 15^th century blue and white porcelains, gardenias were occasionally substituted, as on the interior of a Yongle dragon bowl excavated at Dongmentou, Zhushan, in 1994 (illustrated by the Chang Foundation in, Imperial Hongwu and Yongle Porcelain excavated at Jingdezhen, Taipei, 1996, pp. 212-3, no. 75) .

At this time, gardenias appear quite often on porcelain. In addition to their inclusion in the ‘flowers of the four seasons’ on vessels such as the current vase, they were painted in large scale in the centre of dishes, like the example with yellow enamelled ground excavated at the Xuande imperial kilns at Zhushan in 1984 (illustrated by the Chang Foundation in Xuande Imperial Porcelain excavated at Jingdezhen, Taipei, 1998, p. 89, no. 88), or as one of several accurately depicted floral sprays, seen on a large Yongle dish from the Qing court collection, now preserved in the Palace Museum, Beijing (illustrated in The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum – 34 – Blue and White Porcelain with Underglaze Red (I), Hong Kong, 2000, p. 57, no.54), or as part of an extended mixed floral scroll, such as that painted around the cavetto of another large dish, excavated at Dongmentou, Zhushan, in 1994 (illustrated by the Chang Foundation, Imperial Hongwu and Yongle Porcelain excavated at Jingdezhen, op. cit., pp. 152-3, no. 44). While gardenias appear in Song dynasty paintings and on Yuan dynasty carved lacquer, their popularity on early Ming dynasty porcelain is probably associated with the predilection of ladies for wearing these flowers in their hair – not only because of their delicate beauty, but for their exquisite fragrance.

While a few, rather crowded, mixed floral scrolls can be seen on Hongwu period blue and white dishes excavated at Zhushan, Jingdezhen, in 1994 (see Chang Foundation, Imperial Hongwu and Yongle Porcelain excavated at Jingdezhen, op. cit., pp. 102-5 and 108-9, nos. 19, 20 and 22, respectively), it was in the Yongle reign that these mixed (or composite) floral scrolls came to prominence, opening out in a way that allowed the individual flowers to be appreciated – as on the current vase. As already noted, it was also in the Yongle reign that ceramic artists at Jingdezhen expanded their botanical repertoire to include a much greater range of flowers and fruit. This was accompanied by a greater naturalism in the rendering of these botanical themes. This naturalism would have been inspired not only by paintings on silk and paper, but also by the detailed woodblock illustrations in publications such as materia medica – pharmaceutical literature dealing with plants for their medicinal properties. Although studies of plants were already quite advanced in the Han dynasty, it was not until the Song and Jin dynasties that extensive illustrated publications on the subject of plants were produced. One of the most important of these was the Chongxiu Zhenghe Jingshi Zhenglei Beiyong Bencao (New Revision of the Classified and Consolidated Armamentarium Pharmacopoeia of the Zhenghe Reign) by Tang Shenwei (1056-1093) and Kou Zongshi (fl. 1077), revised by Zhang Cunhui, and published in 1249. Thenceforth, there was much interest in the study of this subject, and both new and revised illustrated publications were produced during the Ming dynasty.

The minor bands on the current vase are also of interest. In place of the more common plantain leaves, the current vase has a band of overlapping ruyi heads around the lower part of the body. Above the major ‘four seasons’ scroll, is a contrasting, elaborate, knobbed scroll, above which is a band of squared spirals. The decorative band under the mouth rim is also relatively unusual, but visually effective. It comprises a standing cloud collar, which is embellished with tiny floral motifs. All these minor bands provide a complementary contrast to the main ‘four seasons’ scroll, and to each other.

A Yongle vase of the same shape and decoration as the current vessel is in the collection of the National Palace Museum, Taipei - illustrated in Porcelain of the National Palace Museum: Blue-and-White Ware of the Ming Dynasty, Book I, Hong Kong, 1963, plate 1, and by Liu Liang-yu in A Survey of Chinese Ceramics 4 Ming Official Wares, Taipei, 1991, p. 55, left-hand image. A Yongle vase also with identical decorative scheme to the current vase, but fractionally taller, is in the collection of the Shanghai Museum, and is illustrated by Lu Minghua in Mingdai guanyao ciqi – Shanghai bowuguan cangpin yanjiu daxi, Shanghai, 2007, pp. 91-3, no. 3-13. Another pear-shaped vase with the same decorative scheme, from the Qing court collection, is preserved in the collection of the Palace Museum, Beijing, and illustrated in The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum – 34 – Blue and White Porcelain with Underglaze Red (I), Hong Kong, 2000, p. 89, no. 86, where it is attributed to the Xuande reign, and the floral scroll is incorrectly described.

Interestingly, Yongle vases of this form and decoration not only found favour with the members of the Chinese court, but also the court of Shah ‘Abbās (1588-1629), also known as ‘Abbās the Great, who was the fifth Safavid shah of Iran. Two Yongle pear-shaped vases, of approximately similar size, and bearing the same decoration as the current vase, are in the collection bequeathed to the Ardebil Shrine by Shah ‘Abbās in 1611, and now preserved in the Museum of Islamic Era, Tehran. Two of the vases were so highly prized that they was inscribed with the mark of Shah ‘Abbās (see John A Pope, Chinese Porcelains from the Ardebil Shrine, London, reprinted 1981 edition, pl. 53, no. 29.448 and 29.450, and T. Misugi, Chinese Porcelain Collections in the Near East: Topkapi and Ardebil, vol. III, p. 150, no. 73) , while another, slightly larger vase from the Ardebil Shrine bequest, although broken at the neck, was carefully and expensively repaired with a turquoise inlaid mount (see Pope, op. cit., pl. 53, text, and Misugi op. cit., p. 151, no. 74, where the decoration is incorrectly described, and Yusen Yu, ‘Gifts from the Ming court to the Islamic world’, Transactions of the Oriental Ceramic Society, vol. 87, London, 2024, pp. 118-9, where a detail showing the mount is illustrated).

Christie's. The Au Bak Ling Collection: The Inaugural Sale, Hong Kong, 26 September 2024