A finely decorated fahua ‘lotus pond’ vase, meiping, Chenghua period (1465-1487)

17 novembre 2017

A finely decorated fahua ‘lotus pond’ vase, meiping, Chenghua period (1465-1487)

Lot 8004. A finely decorated fahua ‘lotus pond’ vase, meiping, Chenghua period (1465-1487). 15 in. (38 cm.) high. Estimate HKD 3,000,000 - HKD 5,000,000 (USD 386,054 - USD 643,424). © Christies Images Ltd 2017

The elegantly potted vase is finely and crisply decorated with moulded and thread appliques in slip to depict a lotus pond from which emerge long stems bearing lotus blooms and leaves amid aquatic plants and butterflies in flight above a border to rolling and cresting waves interspersed with rocks, below the shoulder decorated with a border of alternating peony sprigs and cranes above a band of pendent-ruyi heads, Japanese wood box.

Provenance: A Japanese private collection
Sold at Christie’s Hong Kong, 30 May 2005, lot 1452

Literature: Christie’s 20 Years in Hong Kong, 1986-2006. Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art Highlights, Hong Kong, 2006, p. 119

Note: The current meiping is one of the finest fahua vessels known. The clean outlines of the appliques and the meticulous precision at which they have been applied are of a remarkably high quality. A meiping of nearly identical design but without a band of beads beneath the ruyi-heads, is in the Musee Guimet, Paris, illustrated in Oriental Ceramics, The World's Greatest Collections, vol. 7, Tokyo, 1981, no. 80 (fig. 1).

fig. 1. Vase meiping à décor de lotus, Chine, Jiangxi, Jingdezhen, Dynastie Ming, c. 1500. Biscuit, Sancai fahua. H. : 38 cm ; D. : 20 cm. Ancienne collection Ernest Grandidier, G 5083 © Réunion des musées nationaux.

Compare also a jar of comparable quality decorated with egrets in a lotus pond from the Rockefeller Collection, sold at Christie’s Hong Kong, 1 May 1994, lot 646, and again at Christie’s Hong Kong, 28 November 2005, lot 1420 (fig. 2), when it set the world auction record for a Ming fahua vessel. Other related meiping with different treatment to secondary bands include that with lotus lappets at the shoulder (late 15th or early 16th century, 30.5 cm.), from the George Eumorfopolous Collection, illustrated in the Catalogue, vol. IV, pl. XXXV, included in the Exhibition of Chinese Art, London, 1938 and illustrated by J. Ayers, The Baur Collection, vol.II, Geneva, 1969, no. A 152; another with ruyi-heads at the shoulder and upright petals around the foot (late 15th century, 36.8 cm.) from the Metropolitan Museum of Art, illustrated in Oriental Ceramics, The World's Greatest Collections, vol. 12, Tokyo, 1977, no. 35; and a meiping with jewelled chains at the shoulder illustrated by J. Harrison-Hall, Ming Ceramics in the British Museum, London, 2001, no. 13:5; another sold at Christie’s London, 6 December 1993, lot 76; and a jar of this pattern illustrated in Mayuyama, Seventy Years, vol. 1, Tokyo, 1976, fig. 816.

fig. 2. A fine and rare Ming fahua jar, guan, Ming dynasty, 15th century. 16 in. (40.5 cm.) high. Sold for 9,752,000 at Christie’s Hong Kong, 28 November 2005, lot 1420. World Auction Record for a Ming Fahua vessel. © Christies Images Ltd 2005

Christie's. Important Ming Imperial Works of Art from The Le Cong Tang Collection Evening Sale, 27 November 2017, Hong Kong

Posté par Alain Truong à 19:53 - Commentaires […] - Permalien [#]

Tags: meiping, Fahua, Chenghua period (1465-1487), ‘lotus pond’ vase