Lot 431. A rare large blue and white jar, guan, Yuan dynasty (1279-1368);  14½ in. (36.8 cm.) high.  Estimate : $60,000 - $80,000. Price Realized $158,500. © Christie's Images Ltd 2008.

The tapering ovoid body painted with a frieze of peony meander set between a band of lotus lappets around the base and a ruyi-head collar filled with ducks, egrets and geese on a wave ground on the rounded shoulder, applied with a pair of molded lion masks, the neck with a band of lotus scroll below a further band of classic scroll at the dish-shaped mouth encircled by a key-fret border 14½ in. (36.8 cm.) high, box  

Provenance: Sotheby's, London, 6 June 1995, lot 208.

Note: It is interesting to note the distinctive use of a ruyi-shaped collar as a decorative design on blue and white ceramics of the Yuan dynasty. On jars of this type, the format of this band is found in two groups. The first group is found to enclose subjects such as birds or mythical creatures against a wave-ground, such as the present example. Other similar jars also include those decorated with mythical horses, illustrated in Sekai toji zenshu, Tokyo, 1981, vol. 13, pl. 53; another with galloping horses above waves illustrated by R. Krahl, Chinese Ceramics in the Topkapi Saray Museum, Istanbul, Part II, 1986, p. 407, pl. 586. The second group of ruyi collars is decorated with either dense floral scrolls or phoenixes in flight amidst flowers, such as the two jars illustrated by Zhu Yu Ping, Yuandai Qinghuaci, Hong Kong, 2000, p. 71, fig. 3-16, from the Boston Fine Art Museum (enclosing flowers); and p. 96, fig. 4-7, from the Cleveland Museum of Art (phoenix).

Guan-type jar with lion's-head handles, Yuan dynasty, mid-14th century. Porcelain , Jingdezhen-ware painted in underglaze blue. Overall: 37.2cm (14 5/8in.) Other (diameter of mouth): 15 cm (5 7/8 in.). Gift of Mabel Hobart Cabot in memory of her father Richard B. Hobart, 69.1073. © 2019 Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.

Jar with Lion-Head Handles, China, Jiangxi province, Jingdezhen, Yuan dynasty (1271-1368). Porcelain with underglaze painted decoration. Diameter of mouth: 15.6 cm (6 1/8 in.); Overall: 39.4 x 37.5 cm (15 1/2 x 14 3/4 in.), John L. Severance Fund 1962.154. © Cleveland Museum of Art.

Compare, also, this ruyi motif applied on a meiping from the Gao'an Museum, included in the exhibition, Yuan and Ming Blue and White Ware from Jiangxi, Hong Kong, 2002, no. 20; the wave-filled ruyi-shaped collar encloses an egret, ducks and other water birds among lotus, in a very similar style to the present guan.

Christie's. FINE CHINESE CERAMICS AND WORKS OF ART. 17 September 2008, New York, Rockefeller Plaza.