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28 septembre 2011

An Exceptionally Fine and Rare Blue and White Jue Stand, Ming Dynasty, Yongle Period (1403-1424)

An Exceptionally Fine and Rare Blue and White Jue Stand, Ming Dynasty, Yongle Period (1403-1425)

An Exceptionally Fine and Rare Blue and White Jue Stand, Ming Dynasty, Yongle Period (1403-1425)

Lot  37.  An Exceptionally Fine and Rare Blue and White Jue Stand, Ming Dynasty, Yongle Period (1403-1424); 21.3 cm., 8 3/8 in. Estimate 10,000,000-15,000,000 HKD. Lot sold 28,660,000 HKD (3,682,237 USD). Photo Sotheby's

comprising a dish with an everted rim, raised on four cloud-shaped feet, with a tall conical mountain-shaped support in the centre set with a concave top and three tubular recesses to receive the legs of a jue, the support modelled with sharp peaks and painted with turbulent waves crashing around the base, surrounded by two finely painted five-clawed dragons swimming in surging water, bordered on the rim by a 'classic' scroll band, the exterior painted with tiny lotus sprays on the rim, sides and feet, the base left unglazed exposing the body fired to a bright orange colour

Provenance: Collection of Frederick M. Mayer.
Christie’s London, 25th June 1974, lot 87.

Exhibited: Chinese Blue and White Porcelain. l4th to l9th Centuries, The Oriental Ceramic Society at The Arts Council Gallery, London, 1953-4, cat. no. 39 (illustrated pI. 8a).
Chinese Ceramics from the Meiyintang Collection, The British Museum, London, 1994.

Literature: H.M. Garnerand M. Medley, Chinese Art in Three-Dimensional Colour, Portiand, Oregon, 1969, vol. IV, reel 3, no. 1.
Anthony du Boulay, Christie’s Pictorial Histoty of Chinese Ceramics, London, 1984, P. 119, pI. 2.
Regina Krahl, Chinese Ceramics from the Meiyintang Collection, London, 1994-2010, vol. 2, no. 672.

Dragons Encircling the Isles of the Blessed
Regina Krahl

Tripod wine vessels in the shape of archaic bronze jue had in the Ming dynasty an important function in ritual, but were flot necessarily aiways used together with stands. Whereas several early Mingjue are recorded, only one other jue stand of this type appears to be preserved, in the National Palace Museum, Taipei. Porcelainjue in monochrome whiteare in fact well known from the early Ming dynasty, but no matching stands have been recorded. Ritual vessels of the Yongle period were generally glazed in monochrome colours — white, red, blue and yellow —, their colours signifying different functions in different ceremonies. Blue-and-white ritual vessels of any kind are extremely rare prior to the Xuande period, when many stem bowls were produced in blue-and-white, inscribed with the Xuande reign mark. The discovery of a fragmentaryjue and stand of the present type in the Yongle stratum of the Ming imperial kiln sites confirms, however, the exceptionally early date of the present piece.

The usage and form of jue standsof this type known as xiejue shan pan (mountain plate for resting ajue) probably derives from metal prototypes. A silver twin jue stand, of rectangular form, similarly raised on ruyi-shaped feet, conceived to hold a gold and a silverjue on two mountain supports surrounded by floating dragons, was excavated from the opulent tomb cf Zhu Zhanji, Prince Zhuang of Liang (1411-1441), ninth son ofthe Hongxi Emperor who ruled for less than a year between the Yongle and Xuande reigns. The prince was buried in 1441 in Zhongxiang, Hubel province, together with over 5000 precious objects, many of them dating from the Yongle period, including blue-andwhite and other porcelain stem bowis; see Liang Zhu, ed., Liang Zhuangwang mu/Mausoleum cf Prince Liang Zhuangwang, Beijing, 2007, vol. 1, with the jue and stand illustrated p. 41, figs 41 and 42, and vol. 2, pI. 33 (fig. O). Although no imperial tombs besides that ofthe Wanli emperor have been excavated, some known earlier gold vessels suggest that his tomb furnishings followed a relatively fixed pattern for an imperial mausoleum. They included a gold jue with a circular stand similar to the present piece, formed with a flat rim and a mountain-shaped support surrounded by dragons, probably conceived after an early Ming gold prototype; see Dingling duo ying/The Royal Treasures of Dingling imperialMing Tomb, Beijing, 1989, pI. 71 (fig. 1).

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Fig.0. Silver double lue stand with gold and silver jue. Yongle period or slightly later. From the tomb cf Zhu Zhanji (1411-1441) Prince Zhuang of Liang, at Zhongxiang, Hubei province.

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Fig. 1. Gold jue stand incrusted with jewels. Wanli period. From Dingling, the mausoleum of the Wanli Emperor, outside Beijîng. 

The jue used with these stands were modelled on bronze ritual wine vessels used in the late Shang dynasty (late 2nd millennium BC) in rituals to worship the ancestors. Similar usage in later periods would suggest a Confucian context. The present stand with its three mountain peaks washed round by waves seems, however, designed to evoke the Isles of the Blessed — abode cf the Immortals — and as such also conforms toDaoist concepts that evolved in the Qin and Han dynasties (3rd to 2nd century BC).

The only other porcelain jue stand of this type and this early date that appears to be preserved, is a piece in the National Palace Museum, Taiwan, apparently identical to the Meiyintang example and still retaining its jue; see Ciqishang de longwentezhan/Special Exhibition cf Dragon-Motif Porcelain, National Palace Museum, Taipei, 1983, cat. no. 56 (fig. 2). A fragmentary set, also cf the same design, excavated from the Yongle stratum of the Ming imperial kiln site in Jingdezhen, published in Jingdezhen Zhushan chutu Yongle guanyao ciqi [Yongle Imperial porcelain excavated at Zhushan, Jingdezhen], Capital Museum, Beijing, 2007, cat. no. 98 (fig. 3).

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Fig.2. Blue-and-white Jue and mountain stand. Yongle period. National Palace Museum, Taipei 

 

Blue-and-white jue and mountain stand, Yongle period. From the Ming imperial kiln site, Jingdezhen

Fig.3. Blue-and-white jue and mountain stand, Yongle period. From the Ming imperial kiln site, Jingdezhen.

Two monochrome whitejue reconstructed from sherds found at the Ming imperial kiin site are illustrated ibid. cat. no. 18, and in Imperial Porcelain of the Yongle and Xuande Periods Excavated from the Site cf the Ming Imperial Factory at Jingdezhen, Hong Kong Museum cf Art, Hong Kong, 1989, cat. no. 17.

Similar sets ofjue and stands continued to be used throughout the Ming and Qing dynasties. A similarly decorated example cf the late Ming period s illustrated in Suzanne G. Valenstein, The Herzman Collection of Chinese Ceramics New York, 1992, pI. 77; and one of Qianlong mark and period in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, decorated with cranes among clouds, published in Rose Kerr, Chinese Ceramics. Porcelain 0f the Qing Dynasty 1644-1911, London, 1998 (1986), pI. 44.

Sotheby's. The Meiyintang Collection, Part II - An Important Selection of Chinese Porcelains. Hong Kong 5 october 2011

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