Lot 3578. An Underglaze-Red 'Floral' Pear-Shaped Vase, Yuhuchunping, Hongwu Period (1368-1398). D 21cm. Sold for HKD 3,120,000 (Estimate HKD 1,200,000 - 1,800,000). © Poly Auction Hong Kong Limited 2022

This is a very elegant and elegant piece with a heavy body. The bowl has a straight mouth, deep curved belly, and rounded foot, and is of pier-like form, the entire body decorated with red glaze both inside and out. The inner and outer rims are painted with a band of formalized floral motifs, with the stems and leaves encircling the vessel, the leaves spreading out, the entwined branches going back and forth, the strokes of the brush being continuous, the heart of the bowl painted with a peony in full bloom, and the interior painted with six entwined chrysanthemums, the leaves slender and long, especially the entwined branches, the brushwork smooth and crisp, with a Chinese painterly atmosphere. The chrysanthemum pattern was a popular decoration during the Hongwu dynasty, and is also known as the 'flat chrysanthemum', with its elongated leaves and reticulated stamens, all of which are distinctive features of the period. The foot is glazed in white, with a few rust spots visible on the exposed footrim. This bowl is a representative example of Hongwu red-glazed porcelain, with its pure colour and very distinctive period style of form and decorative composition.

Provenance: 1. Sotheby's, New York, 28 May 1991, no. 218
2. Meiyintang Collection, Switzerland.

Exhibition: Evolution to Perfection: Chinese Ceramics from the Meiyintang Collection, Sporting d'Hiver, Monte Carlo, 1996, no. 104.

Published: Kang Ruijun, The Meiyintang Collection of Chinese Ceramics, vol. 2, London, 1994-2010, p. 30, no. 645.

Note: The Hongwu red-glazed porcelain is a rarer survivor than any other early Ming porcelain. Following the bold and vigorous style of porcelain production of the Yuan dynasty, the early Ming dynasty was a time when porcelain shapes and decorations were more clearly and systematically made. Glazed red was formally fired during the Yuan dynasty, and its popularity during the Hongwu period should be related to the likes and needs of the founding emperor Zhu Yuanzhang. Zhu means red, and is the colour of honour and celebration revered by the Han Chinese. In a semantic sense, the use of glazed red as the exclusive vessel of the Zhu dynasty was full of dominance and dignity, and perfectly suited the character of the grassroots emperor Zhu Yuanzhang. After the Ming dynasty, however, 'it was difficult to make glazed red, so iron-red colours were used instead'. The restrictions on foreign trade in the early Ming period made imported cobalt blue increasingly difficult to obtain, so the use of domestic copper-red as a substitute for it became more widespread, a feature of early Ming porcelain. This was also a feature of early Ming porcelain. According to Liu Xinyuan, during the Hongwu reign, the best of this material was taken and reshaped in accordance with precedent, and red-glazed or reddish-glazed porcelain was produced in this reign, forming a system.

Three examples of similarly glazed red bowls in the Palace Museum Collection are illustrated in Geng Baochang, Selections from the Collection of Ancient Ceramics in the Palace Museum, Beijing, 2005, vol. 1, plates 79-81, one of which is very similar to the present example, and according to the book (p. 106), this style is consistent with the style of porcelain fragments excavated from the site of the Ming Imperial Palace in Nanjing. See an example from the Imperial Palace in Beijing, an old collection from the Qing dynasty, in The Complete Collection of Cultural Objects in the Palace Museum. Another example in the National Palace Museum, Taiwan, is illustrated in Catalogue of a Special Exhibition of Porcelain from the Early Ming Dynasty, National Palace Museum, Taipei, 1982, no. 51; another example in the National Museum of China, Beijing, is illustrated in Research Series on Cultural Objects in the Collections of the National Museum of China. For an example in the collection of the Shanghai Museum, see Lu Minghua, Studies in the Collection of the Shanghai Museum: Porcelain from the Official Kilns of the Ming Dynasty, Shanghai, 2007, plates 1-1. The British Museum, London, 2001, p. 91, fig. 1, where the above can be compared.

Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version).

Poly Auction Hong Kong Limited. A Romance Among Blooming Roses: The Meiyintang Collection of Three Dynasties Imperial Ceramics, Hong Kong, 2 Dec 2021