A rare underglaze-red 'Lotus scroll' bottle vase, yuhuchunping. Ming Dynasty, Hongwu Period - Photo Sotheby's 

of classic elegant pear shape, rising from a low slightly splayed foot to a generous rounded body surmounted by a waisted neck and a flared rim, brightly painted in rich tones of copper red with four different types of lotus blooms borne on a broad continuous scroll, the flowers wreathed by characteristically curling pointed foliage and attendant buds, all below a collar of pendent trefoils, scalloped and key-fret borders, and upright overlapping plantain leaves wrapping the neck, each divided by double lines, the inner mouthrim decorated with a band of 'classic' scroll, the base encircled by a band of petal lappets containing clouds motifs and a 'classic' scroll around the foot, the base and inner foot glazed; 33.5 cm., 13 1/4 in. Estimation: 7,000,000 - 9,000,000 HKD

PROVENANCE: Sotheby's New York, 27th November 1990, lot 144.

EXHIBITED: Evolution to Perfection. Chinese Ceramics from the Meiyintang Collection/Evolution vers la perfection. Céramiques de Chine de la Collection Meiyintang, Sporting d’Hiver, Monte Carlo, 1996, cat. no. 105.

LITTERATURE: Nuno de Castro, E cerâmica e a porcelana Chinesas, Porto, 1992, vol. 2, pl. 11, no. 2.
Regina Krahl, Chinese Ceramics from the Meiyintang Collection, London, 1994-2010, vol. 2, no. 646.

NOTE DE CATALOGUE: Copper-red decorated yuhuchunpingwith floral decoration are among the most characteristic porcelains of the Hongwu era (AD 1368-98). Underglaze copper painting, which is difficult to control in the firing, had only rarely been used in the previous Yuan dynasty (AD 1279-1368), and the regular layout and formal treatment of the flowers also represented a new departure for porcelain painting after the more impromptu painting manner of that earlier period. 

It is very rare, however, to find a Hongwu copper-red vase of this type decorated with lotus rather than the usual peony scroll, and only few companion pieces are recorded. One in the Palace Museum, Beijing, with a scroll border replacing the scalloped band on the present vase, is published in The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum. Blue and White Porcelain with Underglazed Red, vol. 1, Shanghai, 2000, pl. 198, together with two peonydecorated ones, pls. 196-7; one with a lingzhi scroll border below the key-fret, illustrated in The Tsui Museum of Art, Hong Kong, 1991, pl. 59, was sold in our London rooms, 7th April 1981, lot 226; another was sold at Christie’s London, 12th June 1989, lot 166.

Sotheby's. The Meiyintang Collection, Part IV - An Important Selection of Imperial Chinese Porcelains. Hong Kong | 09 oct. 2012 www.sothebys.com