Lot 3237. An extremely rare early Ming blue and white jar, guan, Yongle period (1403-1425); 5 1/8 in. (13 cm.) wide. Estimate HKD 2,000,000 - HKD 3,000,000. Price realised HKD 2,200,000. © Christie's Images Ltd 2014

The exterior of the jar is delicately painted in underglaze-blue with the 'heaping and piling' effect, depicting a continuous garden scene with leafy flowering branches of chrysanthemum and morning glory, beside rocks and millet sprays. 

Provenance: Sold at Sotheby's Hong Kong, 29 April 1997, lot 532 

Note: Blue and white jars of this design from the early 15th century are extremely rare, and only very few related examples have been published to date. Compare to another early 15th century example of similar design from the collection of Mrs. Alfred Clark, now in the British Museum, illustrated in Oriental Ceramics, The World's Great Collections, vol. 5, 1981, pl. 38. Another comparable example was sold at Christie's Hong Kong, 29 September 1992, lot 471. No excavated example appears to have been found from the Yongle and Xuande strata at the Jingdezhen Imperial kilns so far, suggesting that only very few jars of this rare type were produced at the time.