Lot 3222. A very rare fine and superbly painted blue and white meiping and a cover, Yongle period (1403-1425), the cover, late Ming dynasty. Estimate HK$30,000,000 – HK$40,000,000 (US$3,880,110 - $5,173,480). Price realised HKD 50,520,000 (USD 6,532,100). Photo Christie's Image Ltd 2016.

The tapering body is boldly painted in rich tones of cobalt blue with extensive ‘heaping and piling’ with six fruiting sprays arranged in two registers, with peach, pomegranate and crab apple on the upper register, and cherry, loquat and lychee on the lower register. The foot is encircled by overlapping acanthus leaves and the shoulder with a band of lotus petal lappets enclosing trefoils. The bell-shaped cover is decorated on the slightly concave sides with two fruiting sprays and on the almost flat top with a collar of six stylised lotus petals below a lotus-head finial, the underside with an inner cylinder to fit the neck of the vase. 14 7/8 in. (37.8 cm.) high, overall; 13 1/2 in. (34.3 cm.) high, vase without cover 

Provenance: Sold at Sotheby’s London, 15 December 1987, lot 142 (vase) 
Sold at Sotheby’s New York, 2 June 1993, lot 382 (cover) 
The T. T. Tsui Collection (1941-2010)
Sold at Christie’s Hong Kong, 2 November 1999, lot 650
The Alan Chuang Collection

Literature: Selected Treasures of Chinese Art: Min Chiu Society Thirtieth Anniversary Exhibition, Hong Kong, 1990, pp. 284-5, no. 127 
The Alan Chuang Collection of Chinese Porcelain, Hong Kong, 2009, pl. 11

Exhibited: Hong Kong Museum of Art, Selected Treasures of Chinese Art: Min Chiu Society Thirtieth Anniversary Exhibition, 30 November 1990 – 10 February 1991, Hong Kong

Notes: The current meiping, distinguished by its well-balanced form, elegant composition, and delicate painting, rendered successfully by the painter’s controlled yet confident hand, represents one of the finest examples of early fifteenth-century blue and white wares. 

Similar meiping bearing this design are known in museums and private collections worldwide, ranging from 24.5 cm. to 41 cm. in height. Three examples of comparable size have been recorded, one was included in The Philadelphia 1949 Exhibition of Ming Blue-and-white, Catalogue, no. 89, and now in the Matsuoka Museum of Arts; the second in the National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, included in the Art gallery of New South Wales Exhibition of Chinese Porcelain, 1977, Catalogue, no. 52; and the third in the Topkapi Saray Museum, no. TKS15/3822. The Topkapi Saray Museum has an additional five meiping bearing this design, two of 29 cm. in height, are illustrated by Regina Krahl inChinese Ceramics in the Topkapi Museum: A Complete Catalogue, vol. 2, London, 1986, p. 430, no. 624, one of which has a blue ground to the petals around the shoulder. The Ardebil Shrine similarly has six meiping of this design, one is illustrated in Chinese Porcelains from the Ardebil Shrine, Washington, 1956, no. 51. Two further examples are in the National Palace Museum, Taipei, illustrated in Mingci Mingpin Tulu: Hongwu Yao, Yongle Yao, Xuande Yao, Tokyo, 1977, pls. 12 (fig. 1) and 39, the later with a cover and a slightly different proportion and a more tightly arranged composition, is attributed to the Xuande period. One in the Palace Museum, Beijing, is illustrated in Zhongguo taoci quanji, vol. 12, Shanghai, 2000, pl. 12, and a second by Geng Baochang in Gugong bowuyuan cang Mingchu qinghua ci, Beijing, 2002, vol. 1, pl. 76, dated Xuande period. Another from the Percival David Foundation of Chinese Art, no. PDF A.610, is currently on display at the British Museum. 

fig. 1 Blue and white meiping and a cover, Yongle period (1403-1425), Collection of the National Palace Museum, Taipei

In terms of form and decoration, the current type of meiping is closely related to another group of meiping from this period, which has a rounder waist and a more complex design showing ten fruiting sprays as the main motif, arranged in a narrower register between more elaborate borders. Examples of this later group include two covered meiping in the Palace Museum, Beijing, illustrated in The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum, Blue and White Porcelain with Underglaze Red (I), Hong Kong, 2000, pp. 31-32, nos. 29-30 (no. 29, fig. 2); and one formerly in the Meiyintang Collection, sold at Sotheby’s Hong Kong, 5 October 2011, lot 11. 

fig. 2 Blue and white meiping and a cover, Yongle period (1403-1425), Collection of the Palace Museum, Beijing

The current meiping appears to be the only one of this size group and design to have been offered at auction. Similar examples of this design sold at auction include one from the YC Chen Collection, sold at Christie’s Hong Kong, 29 May 2013, lot 1930 (28.5 cm.), and another sold at Sotheby’s Hong Kong, 8 April 2014, lot 3023 (28 cm.).