Lot 2. The Au Bak Ling Collection. A rare blue and white ‘Dragon’ bottle vase, Yuhuchunping, Yuan dynasty (1279-1368); 28.5 cm. high. Price realised HKD 819,000 (Estimate HKD 500,000 – HKD 800,000). © Christie's Images Ltd 2024.

The vase is finely potted with fairly thin walls, the pear-shaped body is supported on a slightly splayed foot rising to a trumpet neck. The exterior is painted with a powerful striding three-clawed dragon among flames pursuing a flaming pearl. The foot is encircled by a stylised scroll band.

Provenance: Sold at Sotheby’s Hong Kong, 28 April 1998, lot 726
Sold at Christie’s Hong Kong, 1 June 2011, lot 3805.

Note: Yuhuchunping decorated with a dragon pursuing a flaming pearl are relatively rare. Compare the current vase to a smaller example formerly in the Ataka collection and now in the Museum of Oriental Ceramics in Osaka, illustrated by Zhu Yuping in Yuandai qinghua ci (Yuan Blue and White Porcelain), Shanghai, 2000, p. 87, no. 3-45; and one formerly in the collections of Charles E. Russell, Mrs. Alfred Clark, The Meiyintang Collection and Ten Views Lingbi Collection, sold at Poly Beijing, 7 June 2021, lot 5044. A fragment of a yuhuchunping of this pattern was discovered near Chifeng, Inner Mongolia, and exhibited in Empires Beyond the Great Wall: The Heritage of Genghis Khan, Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, 1993, p. 141, no. 91..

Christie's. The Au Bak Ling Collection: The Inaugural Sale, Hong Kong, 26 September 2024