A rare underglaze-red 'Peony Scroll' bottle vase, yuhuchunping, Ming Dynasty, Hongwu Period. 33.7 cm., 13 1/4  in. Estimation  8,000,000 — 10,000,000 HKD (804,776 - 1,005,970 EUR). Unsold. Photo: Sotheby's.

of elegant pear shape rising from a low foot to a voluminous curved body and a tapered neck surmounted by a flared rim, freely painted in greyish tones of underglaze copper red with four large peony blooms borne on a broad continuous scroll, the flowers wreathed by attendant buds and characteristic serrated leaves, all between a band of petal lappets containing cloud motifs around the base and a collar of pendent veined trefoils collaring the shoulder, the neck further decorated with a floral scroll and a row of upright overlapping plantains divided by a border of key-fret within double lines, the inner mouthrim and the foot encircled with key-fret, the base and inner foot glazed.

Provenance: Collection of the Idemitsu Museum of Arts, Tokyo.
Collection of T.T. Tsui.

Litterature: Chinese Ceramics in the Idemitsu Collection, Idemitsu Museum of Arts, Tokyo, 1987, no. 626.

After the boisterous painting style practised by Jingdezhen’s porcelain painters in the Yuan dynasty, a more quiet and orderly manner of decorating porcelains was introduced at the imperial kilns at the beginning of the Ming dynasty. The soft copper-red tones characteristic of Hongwu porcelains was particularly well-suited to this new style and became an important colour for decorating during his reign. According to Liu Xinyuan, ceramics expert at the Jingdezhen Institute of Ceramic Archaeology, underglaze-red porcelain was produced systematically on a considerable scale because very few were successfully fired due to the difficulty in controlling the copper-red pigment (see Liu Xinyuan, ‘A Study of Early Ming and Yongle Imperial Porcelain Excavated at Zhushan, Jingdezhen’, Imperial Hongwu and Yongle Porcelain Excavated at Jingdezhen, Taipei, 1996, p. 52).

Although the beginning of the new Ming dynasty brought profound changes to the Jingdezhen potters’ repertoire, painted designs for the first three decades remained mainly restricted to formal flower motifs and ornamental borders covering the surface of the vessel in an orderly pattern, as seen on this piece. Liu, ibid., notes that while the subject matter and decoration employed may not have been as rich or varied as that of the Yuan dynasty, nor the brushwork as fluent and lively, Hongwu porcelain retains a quality of independent robustness with a distinct style that was virtually unrepeated in later periods. 

A related bottle vase from the Qing Court collection and still in Beijing is illustrated inThe Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum. Blue and White Porcelain with Underglazed Red (I), Shanghai, 2000, pl. 197; and another in the Tokyo National Museum, included in Oriental Ceramics. The World’s Great Collections, vol. 1, Tokyo, 1982, pl. 112. Further examples of peony scroll-decorated yuhuchunping include one from the collection of Sir Harry Garner, sold in our London rooms, 21st November 1961, lot 24; four vases published in Mayuyama Seventy Years, vol I, Tokyo, 1976, pls. 721-74; and another sold in our London rooms, 7th November 2012, lot 317. See also a vase of this type of exceptional quality and deep copper-red decoration, with an extensive provenance, sold in these rooms, 17th May 1988, lot 12, and last sold at Christie’s Hong Kong, 30th May 2006, lot 1248. 

The Hongwu emperor’s preference for copper-red may also be associated with his involvement with the rebellions against the Mongol-ruled Yuan dynasty prior to his becoming emperor. A member of the Red Turbans, a millenarian sect related to the White Lotus Society, he emerged as leader of the rebels that were to overthrow the Mongols. 

Sotheby's. Important Ming Porcelain from a Private Collection. Hong Kong | 08 oct. 2013