A very rare ‘Number Three’ Jun jardinière, Yuan-Ming dynasty, 14th-15th century

29 août 2016

A very rare ‘Number Three’ Jun jardinière, Yuan-Ming dynasty, 14th-15th century

Lot 724. A very rare ‘Number Three’ Jun jardinière, Yuan-Ming dynasty, 14th-15th century; 8 5/8 in. (22 cm.) wide. Estimate USD 15,000 - USD 25,000. Price realised USD 389,000. © Christie's Image Ltd 2016.

The jardinière is finely potted with a compressed globular body that rises from a spreading foot to a slightly flared neck, its mouth rim is now mounted with a copper band. It is covered with a purplish glaze with lavender-blue suffusions on the exterior, while the interior is covered with a rich mottled lavender-blue color. The base is pierced with five drainage holes, and is inscribed with the incised numeral san, ‘three’, cloth box, Japanese wood box.

Provenance: Captain and Mrs. V. Bulkeley-Johnson (The Mount Trust) Collection.
Sotheby's London, 10 December 1991, lot 135.
Sen Shu Tey, Tokyo.

Literature: The Oriental Ceramics Society of London, Sung Dynasty Wares. Chun and Brown Glazes, London, 1952, no. 158.
Victoria and Albert Museum, The Mount Trust Collection of Chinese Art, London, 1970, no. 53.
Sen Shu Tey, The Collection of Chinese Art - Special Exhibition ‘Run Through 10 Years’, Tokyo, 2006, p. 55, no. 64.
Christie’s, The Classic Age of Chinese Ceramics: An Exhibition of Song Treasures from the Linyushanren Collection, Hong Kong, 2012, pp. 72-73, no. 21.

Exhibited: The Oriental Ceramics Society, London, Sung Dynasty Wares. Chun and Brown Glazes, 1952.
Victoria and Albert Museum, London, The Mount Trust Collection of Chinese Art, January-March 1970.
Sen Shu Tey, Tokyo, The Collection of Chinese Art - Special Exhibition ‘Run Through 10 Years’, 2006.
Christie’s, The Classical Age of Chinese Ceramics: An Exhibition of Song Treasures from the Linyushanren Collection, Hong Kong, 22 to 27 November 2012; New York, 15 to 20 March 2013; London, 10 to 14 May 2013.

Note: The fascination with Jun ware lies in its remarkable glaze, and its lustrous and opalescent qualities, as evident in the presentjardinière. The purplish glaze with lavender-blue suffusions is termed meigui zi (rose purple) in Chinese. A similar rose-purple-glazed Jun jardinière incised with the numeral ‘three’ and with a similarly reduced neck is in the National Palace Museum, Taipei, and included in A Panorama of Ceramics in the Collection of the National Palace Museum, Chun Ware, Taipei, 1999, pp. 54-55, no. 10. Other ‘number three’ examples include one in the Freer Gallery and two in the Harvard University Art Museum, illustrated in ‘Numbered Chun Ware’ , Transactions of the Oriental Ceramic Society, vol. 21, 1945-46, p. 64.