Lot 52. An underglaze-copper-red pear-shaped vase, yuhuchunping, late 14th century; 13 in. (33 cm.) high. Estimate GBP 15,000 - GBP 20,000. Price realised GBP 27,600. © Christie’s Images Limited 1998

The well-rounded body with a narrow neck and flaring mouth and supported on a short spreading foot ring, painted in underglaze-red with four large peony blooms alternately depicted in profile and full-faced, borne on a generously scrolling stem with characteristically spiky leaves and four smaller blossoms, between a row of stylised lappets at the base above a narrow band of classic- scroll on the foot, and a key-fret band around the neck below rising plantain leaves, the lip interior painted with a further classic-scroll band, the decoration of a violet-red tone fired to a liver-grey in some areas, part of neck restored, fitted box.

Note: Underglaze-red vases of this shape with a broad peony scroll below a band of trefoils are known with a variety of neck designs, but with varying degrees of success in the firing of the copper-red. For a discussion of the group, see J. M. Addis, A Group of Underglaze Red, T.O.C.S., vol.31, London, 1957-59, pp.15-37, and in particular p.27 where the author notes that silver vases of this form were included in the hoard of gold and silver vessels found at Hefei, Anhui, which can be dated to 1333 A.D., one of which is illustrated in the Archives of the Art Society of America, XI, 1957, p.82, fig.5c.

See Mayuyama, Seventy Years, Tokyo, 1976, vol.I, p.241, no. 724 for an identical vase to the present lot, together with the very similar no.721, which is in the Tokyo National Museum, and two other examples with slightly different necks, nos. 722 and 723. Another very similar vase is in the Fogg Art Museum, Harvard University, included in the Cleveland Museum of Art Exhibition, Chinese Art Under the Mongols: The Yuan Dynasty, 1968, Catalogue no.170. Other similar examples are in the Kokusui Museum, Japan, illustrated in the revised Sekai Toji Zenshu, vol.13, fig.146; and in the Newark Museum, New York, included in the China Institute of America Exhibition of Chinese Art, 1980, Catalogue no.20. For a very similar vase with the unusual variation of a peony scroll replacing the stiff leaves at the neck, see the example sold in these Rooms, 4 December 1995, lot 97. Compare also the vase of very similar design but painted in underglaze blue, included in the Illustrated Catalogue of Ming Dynasty Porcelain in the National Palace Museum, pl.2.

Underglaze-red yuhuchunping can also be found with scrolling lotus, scrolling chrysanthemum, and even more unusually a design of 'The Three Friends', pine, prunus and bamboo; these less-frequently-found designs are however otherwise very similar to those vases with peony scroll in their decoration around the neck and foot. 

Christie's. MING - THE AGE OF REFINEMENT. London, 16 November 1998