Lot 613. An extremely rare blue and white 'peony' jar, guan, Yuan dynasty (1279-1368); 35.5 cm. Estimate 6,000,000 - 9,000,000 HKD. © Sotheby's 2024

of baluster form, superbly potted with wide swelling shoulders gently tapering to a slightly flared foot, surmounted by a short upright neck with lipped rim, deftly painted in vibrant tones of cobalt blue with broad strokes within pencilled outlines, depicting a broad scroll of six large peony blooms, each differently rendered with a luxuriant array of petals, borne on the same undulating scroll with attendant buds and foliage, below bands of leafy scrolling lotus and crested waves, the foot with bands of coins and lappets, covered overall with a transparent glaze slightly tinged to blue, the broad foot ring and recessed base unglazed, Japanese double wood box.

Literature: Arts of the Silk Road, Fuji Art Museum, Fujinomiya, 1990 (introduction).

Exhibited: So Gen no bijutsu [Art of the Song and Yuan Dynasties], Osaka Municipal Art Museum, Osaka, vol. 4, 1978, cat. no. 1-233.

Note: Adorned with graceful floral scrolls and crashing waves, the present jar is a superb example of the marvellous blue-and-white wares produced at the height of the Yuan dynasty. From the varied tone of its fine underglaze blue decoration to its imposing bulbous form, each feature of this piece speaks of the hand of a long-forgotten master – immortalised forever in this remarkable work of art.

Thrown and glazed in Jingdezhen in the 14th century, this jar was among the first wares produced in China in the now ubiquitous blue-and-white palette. In what scholars have dubbed the ‘Mongol Corporation,’ Kublai Khan and his Yuan dynasty built upon and expanded the Silk Road like never before. Introducing paper currency and an early form of passports, the Emperor and his court empowered merchants to travel the length and breadth of the vast empire, from China to Europe, and bring with them priceless goods including silk, livestock and – crucially for our purposes – cobalt. 

This blue mineral, once considered as rare and valuable as gold, had long been used as a pigment in Islamic ceramics but rose to even greater heights on its arrival in China. Although some earlier blue-and-white wares from the Tang dynasty had exploited small cobalt deposits in Henan Province, it was not until the Yuan dynasty that the finest cobalt, imported from Persia, became available and gained its famed status in China. Featuring detailed decorations in a luscious variegated blue tone, the present jar exemplifies what became possible with the advent of cobalt: lifelike shading and brushwork reminiscent of ink painting, rendered in a rich enchanting blue.

While many blue-and-white pieces from this early period make reference to the bold strokes and fine detailing of ink paintings, the central design of the present lot makes the connection particularly apparent. Depicting a single peony bloom from four different angles – each view linked to the next by a scrolling branch – the design functions much like a narrative on a painted handscroll, to be ‘read’ by turning the vessel. This ingenious design, largely abandoned by the mid-fifteenth century, speaks to the immense creativity of the early Jingdezhen potters and the relative artistic freedom afforded to them by the Yuan court. 

The lively band of serpentine waves at the neck of the jar, swirling and breaking with dark black bubbles, is also symptomatic of the creative liberty of the Yuan. Termed ‘Type Five’ waves by Steven P. Gaskin, this motif is yet another example of the free-spirited and playful nature of Yuan dynasty brushwork that soon faded with the arrival of more formal Ming designs; see Gaskin, ‘The David Vases: Considering Serpentine Waves on Yuan Blue-and-White’, Orientations, vol. 46, no. 4, May 2015, pp. 81-89, where he cites two larger jars with similar bubbling waves (and peony designs): one in the British Museum with a metal rim mount, illustrated in Jessica Harrison-Hall, Catalogue of The Late Yuan and Ming Ceramics in The British Museum, London, 2001, no. 1:31; and the other in the Cleveland Museum of Art (acc. no. 1962.154).

Although blue-and-white jars of related design are well attested in museum collections, the present combination of peonies and waves with a diaper band is extremely rare, if not unique. Compare four widely published jars of very similar design but with a slightly narrower shoulder decoration and a scroll border in place of the present diaper: one preserved in the Shanghai Museum, illustrated in Zhongguo taoci quanji [The complete works of Chinese ceramics], vol. 11, Shanghai, 2000, pl. 158; the second in the Shanxi Provincial Museum, in Zhongguo wenwu jinghua daquan: Taoci juan [Complete masterpieces of Chinese cultural relics: Ceramics volume], Taipei, 1993, no. 551; the third, from a Japanese private collection, in Sekai tōji zenshū / Ceramic Art of the World, vol. 13, Tokyo, 1981, pl. 123; and the fourth sold in our London rooms, 7th June 1988, lot 211A; again at Christie’s Hong Kong, 25th October 1993, lot 716, and again in our New York rooms, 30th March 2006, lot 61. Another jar of very closely related design but with the diaper band instead at the base of the neck was sold in our Amsterdam rooms, 15th March 1983, lot 2003.

Sotheby's. Chinese Art through the Eye of Sakamoto Gorō: A Selection I, Hong Kong, 29 October 2024