Lot 17. A rare blue and white jar with 'horse and peony' design, Yuan dynasty; 37.8cm high, 19.3 cm diam of base. Sold for US$152,900 (Estimate US$100,000-150,000). © Bonhams 2025

The expertly potted vessel rising to a wide shoulder and banded rim, decorated in the lower section with elegant peony blossoms enclosed by spirals of leafy branches above a cloud scroll band and stiff lappets, the shoulder brilliantly rendered in rich cobalt blue with an elegant cloud-collar of leaping 'heavenly horses' set against a network of spiraling waves, each lively steed in a different pose and set off by mock lion-mask handles, the shoulder and neck painted with lotus blossoms and scrolling leaves separated from the leafy spiral band and keyfret rim by a plain ring band.

Provenance: Acquired from a Japanese Private Collection, 2000

Exhibited: Chūgoku kotōji meihin 70 sen: heisei gannen shūki tokubetsuten (Seventy Selected Masterpieces of ancient Chinese ceramics: Special Autumn exhibition in the first year of the Heisei period), Fukuyama Castle Museum, Fukuyama, 1989, cat. no. 40

Published: Yuan and Ming Blue and White Porcelain. David Lin & Co., Taipei, 2000, cat. no 2 and cover

Note: The existence of a 'heavenly horse' cloud collar band in extant Yuan blue and white jars is very rare. Horses were greatly prized at the Yuan court, and pastures at the court were allocated to those steeds designated for the ruler and his vassals. Prized for their speed and endurance, they were the subject in paintings and textiles of the Yuan period. See a splendid textile decorated with horses, other animals and flowers, dated to the 12th-14th century in the Collection of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Rogers Fund, 1988.296, and a stunning Zhao Mengfu, Zhao Lin and Zhao Yong painting of Man and Groom, Gift of John Crawford, 1988.135.

See a closely related jar painted with dragons, illustrated in Regina Krahl, Chinese Ceramics in the Topkapi Saray Museum, ed. John Ayers, Istanbul, London, 1986, vol. 2, color plate 586. For two jars of the same form, both with covers, one from the Gao'an Museum, decorated with dragons and peonies, and the other with peony and bajixiang from the Bengbu Museum, see Chen Xiejun et.al, Splendors in Smalt. Art of Yuan Blue and White Porcelain Shanghai Museum, Shang shuhua chubanshe, 2012, catalog nos. 58 and 64; another, a jar and cover, painted with horses and slightly larger, is illustrated in Ye Peilan, Yuandai ciqi, Beijin, 1998, color plate 58, later sold at Sotheby's, Hong Kong, April 11, 2008, lot 2927. See a blue and white yuhuchunping decorated with horses in waves in the collection of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, a gift of Stanley Herzman, in memory of Adele Herzman, 1991, object no. 1991.253.32.

Bonhams. CHINESE CERAMICS AND WORKS OF ART INCLUDING THE FRANCINE AND BERNARD WALD COLLECTION OF FINE SNUFF BOTTLES, PART I. New York, 17 March 2025