Christie's. On The Studio Desk, Hong Kong, 27 November 2019
A Yixing lotus petal-form washer by Chen Mingyuan, Kangxi period (1662-1722)
Lot 2822. A Yixing lotus petal-form washer by Chen Mingyuan, Kangxi period (1662-1722); 5 ½ in. (13.8 cm.) long. Estimate HKD 600,000 - HKD 800,000 (USD 77,067 - USD 102,756). © Christie's Images Ltd 2019
Potted in the form of an incurved lotus petal with a stem forming the handle, the vessel is supported on a foot shaped as a lotus root and another foot shaped as a small snail. The base is impressed with an artist's seal, Chen Mingyuan Zhi (made by Chen Mingyuan), cloth box.
The Collection of Eileen and I.M. Pei.
Literature: Terese Tse Bartholomew, I-Hsing Ware, New York, 1977, p.61, no. 37
The Shanghai Museum and the Art Museum, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Themes and Variation: The Zisha Pottery of Chen Mingyuan, Hong Kong, 1997, p. 114, no. 28, fig. 1.
Exhibited: New York, China House Gallery / China Institute in America, I-Hsing Ware, 28 October 1977 - 29 January 1978
Kansas City, William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art, Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, 19 February - 21 May 1978
San Francisco, The Avery Brundage Collection, Asian Art Museum of San Francisco, 16 June – 21 September 1978
New York, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Loyalty and Dissent in Traditional Chinese Painting and Calligraphy, 30 March - 9 September 1990.
Note: Examples of Yixing vessels in this form and design are very rare. One example from the Blumenfield Collection was included in the Hong Kong Museum of Art exhibition Yixing Pottery, 7 October - 13 December 1981, Catalogue p. 90, no. 32, and illustrated in publications including K.S. Lo, The Stonewares of Yixing from the Ming Period to the Present Day, Hong Kong, 1986, p. 221, no. 143; Sydney L. Moss Ltd., The Literati Mode, London, 1986, pp. 228-9, no. 104; and Lai Suk Yee and Terese Tse Bartholemew ed., Themes and Variations: The Zisha Pottery of Chen Mingyuan, Shanghai Museum and Art Museum, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, 1997, p. 114, fig. 2. This was sold at Christie's New York, 22 March, 2012, lot 1249. Another example is illustrated by Helen Comstock, "Some Examples of I-hsing Pottery," Connoisseur, Vol. CIV (March 1942), p. 75.
From the Robert H. Blumenfield Collection. An extremely rare Yixing lotus petal-form water vessel signed Chen Mingyuan; 5½ in. (14 cm.) long. Sold for 506,500 USD at Christie's New York, 22 March, 2012, lot 1249. © Christie's Images Ltd 2012
Cf. my post: The Robert H. Blumenfield collection to be offered @ Christie's Asian Art Week in New York