A fine and rare blue and white beaker vase, zun, Ming dynasty, Chenghua period (1465-1487)
Lot 523. A fine and rare blue and white beaker vase, zun, Ming dynasty, Chenghua period (1465-1487), 21.5 cm., 8 1/2 in. Estimate 4,000,000 — 6,000,000 HKD. Sold 13,760,000 HKD. Photo Sotheby's.
well potted after the archaistic bronze zun form, freely painted in rich cobalt-blue tones, set on each section with four vertical flanges, the globular central bulb decorated with four of the 'babao' ('The Eight Treasures'), each issuing from a lotus bloom amid leafy curling scrolls, the broad trumpet neck similarly decorated with four emblems completing the 'babao' , all supported on a high spreading pedestal foot with two bands of detached flower sprays above a classic scroll, the inside of the neck with a bold ring of slender overlapping plantain leaves radiating towards the rim.
Provenance: Acquired at auction in France in 1980 (as late 19th century).
Note: This vase is extremely unusual both in shape and in design, and is remarkable for the fine quality of its porcelain. Chenghua porcelains, which are greatly admired and display a very distinct character both in terms of their material and their style of decoration, are the rarest Chinese Imperial porcelains. The decoration of this vase is particularly pleasing with the lotus blooms painted in a natural and carefree manner that allows the beholder to appreciate the material over design. The cobalt pigment is also even and is without the characteristic 'heaping and piling' of the early Ming period. The tones found on this vase are soft and attractive, a trademark of the Chenghua blue-and-white. Regina Krahl in 'Muted Elegance - A Superb Chenghua Palace Bowl, Classicism in Continuum. The Arts of the Ming, Hong Kong, 2006, p. 48, notes that 'Chenghua glazes are arguably the finest ever achieved at Jingdezhen. Unlike the crisp and glossy of the best Xuande wares, those of the Chenghua reign are more muted, covering the blue design with a most delicate veil. The sensual pleasure of the touch of the Chenghua porcelain vessel is unmatched by porcelains of any other period.'
Three other vases of this unusual type, all similarly decorated with plantain leaves on the inside of the neck, but with different designs on the outside, are in the Palace Museum, Beijing, illustrated in The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum: Blue and White Porcelain with Underglazed Red (II), Shanghai, 2000, pl. 50, decorated with dragons, pl. 51, with lotus scrolls, and pl. 92, with fish among waterplants. Another example of a zun painted with the motif of five-clawed dragons on a ground of waves is published in Adrian Joseph, Ming Porcelains. Their Origins and Development, London, 1971, pl. 42.
See also a Chenghua zun of this shape but with finely painted scenes of a central mossy garden rock flanked by date-palm, bamboo and lingzhi sprays, sold at Christie's London, 16th November 1999, lot 206, and again in these rooms, 2nd May 2000, lot 656; and one with garden scenes of flowering chrysanthmum sprays, also sold in these rooms, 1st May 2001, lot 515.
Although the shape of this vessel is ultimately based on archaic bronze zun, this particular profile is most closely related to numbered Junyao examples, such as, for example, a piece in Beijing illustrated in The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum. Porcelains of the Song Dynasty (I), Hong Kong, 1996, pl. 12.
Sotheby's. Important Chinese Art: The Collection of a Parisian Connoisseur, Hong Kong, 08 Apr 2007