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8 octobre 2013

A copper-red decorated 'Flower' cupstand, Ming Dynasty, Hongwu Period

A copper-red decorated 'Flower' cupstand, Ming Dynasty, Hongwu Period

Lot 3106. A copper-red decorated 'Flower' cupstand, Ming Dynasty, Hongwu Period. 19.6 cm., 7 3/4  in. Estimate 700,000 — 1,000,000 HKD. Lot sold 2,200,000 HKD. Photo: Sotheby's.

finely potted with shallow lobed sides rising to a barbed everted rim divided into eight bracket foliations, freely painted in underglaze copper-red of soft grey-brown colour, the central cup-holder with a radiating ruyi-head motif encircled by a raised bevelled border picked out with small lappets and a band of pomegranate flower scroll within double-lines, all below foliate sprays of formal lotus viewed from different angles around the cavetto and a 'classic' scroll on the lipped rim, the underside crisply moulded with radiating petal lappets enclosing pendent ruyi below a band of key-fret on the outer rim, the slightly recessed base encircled with a neatly cut foot ring, left unglazed and burnt orange in the firing.

Provenance: Sotheby's Hong Kong, 27th April 1993, lot 34 

This piece is unusual for the pomegranate flower scroll, each bloom painted in profile to reveal the white calyx, which encircles the central ruyi-head medallion. Cupstands of this type are more commonly found with chrysanthemum scrolls or mixed flower scrolls in place of the pomegranate flowers; see one painted with chrysanthemums, in the Shanghai Museum, Shanghai, illustrated in Underglaze Blue and Red, Hong Kong, 1987, pl. 39; and another depicting a composite floral scroll, sold at Christie’s Hong Kong, 30th May 2006, lot 1249. A related cupstand with similar decoration but with a scroll of peonies, in the British Museum, London, is included in Oriental Ceramics. The World’s Great Collections, vol. 5, Tokyo, 1981, col. pl. 73. 

Compare blue and white cupstands of this type, such as one from the collection of Dr. Ip Yee, included in the Min Chiu Society Exhibition of an Anthology of Chinese Ceramics, Hong Kong, 1980, cat. no. 72, and sold in these rooms, 19th November 1984, lot 176, painted with a central medallion of radiating ruyi-heads but encircled by a scroll of lotus and other flowers? 

Sotheby's. Fine Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art. Hong Kong | 08 Oct 2013

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