Lot 3663. An unusual copper-red splashed vase, yuhuchunping, Yuan dynasty (1279-1366), 20.9 cm, 8 1/4  in. Estimate 1,500,000 — 2,500,000 HKD. Lot sold 1,875,000  HKD. Photo: Sotheby's.  

the pear-shaped body rising to a slender neck and flaring rim, all supported on a slightly splayed foot, the body engraved with five double bands, applied with a pale blue-tinged white glaze and liberally decorated with four rich copper-red splashes

Note: Striking for the bold splashes of copper against a pale glaze, vases of this type were made at Jingdezhen during the Yuan dynasty when potters began experimenting with copper pigments on qingbai-type glazes. J.M. Addis in Chinese Porcelain from the Addis Collection. Twenty-two Pieces of Chingtechen Porcelain Presented to the British Museum, London, 1979, pp. 9-10, discusses the experimental techniques of the Yuan dynasty and suggests that the earliest use of copper-oxide, difficult to control due to its unstable nature, was probably as a broad band forming the background for an incised design. It is however possible that the large splashes on this piece predate the use of underglaze red as a colour ground.

A yuhuchunping with similar splashes is illustrated in Chen Yongzhi, Porcelain Unearthed from Jininglu Ancient City Site in Inner Mongolia, Beijing, 2004, pl. 41; another was included in the Oriental Ceramic Society Exhibition of Jingdezhen Wares. The Yuan Evolution, London, 1984, cat. no. 146; and a third with the splashes fired to a grey tone, from the C.P. Lin Collection, included in the exhibition Elegant Form and Harmonious Decoration. Four Dynasties of Jingdezhen Porcelain, Percival David Foundation of Chinese Art, London, 1992, cat. no. 17, was sold in these rooms, 20th May 1981, lot 652.

Other vessels decorated with similar copper splashes include a cup in the British Museum, London, illustrated in R.L. Hobson, Chinese Ceramics from Private Collections, London, 1931, pl. 90, from the collection of H.J. Oppenheim; a revolving stem cup with a chilong on the exterior, excavated in 1980 in Gao’an county, Jiangxi province, now in the Gao’an County Musuem, illustrated in Liu Liang-yu, A Survey of Chinese Ceramics, vol. 3, Taipei, 1992, p. 177 bottom right; and a fragment of a stem cup with moulded decoration on the interior, in the Freer Gallery of Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington D.C., included in the exhibition Blue and White. Chinese Porcelain and Its Impact on the Western World, The David and Alfred Smart Gallery, University of Chicago, Chicago, 1965, cat. no. 11e.

Sotheby's. Important Chinese Art, Hong Kong, 05 Apr 2017