Lot 306. A copper-red pear-shaped vase, Ming dynasty, Hongwu period (1368-1398). Height 31 cm. Lot Sold 215,900 USD (Estimate 15,000 - 25,000 USD). © Sotheby's 2025

Provenance: French Private Collection (by repute)

Note: The design on the present vase illustrates the more quiet and orderly manner of decorating porcelains introduced at the imperial kilns during the early part of the Ming dynasty. The soft copper-red tones characteristic of Hongwu porcelains were well-suited to this new style. As noted by Liu Xinyuan, significant numbers of copper-red decorated porcelains were produced but only few were successfully fired due to the difficulties in controlling the copper-red pigment, see Liu Xinyuan, 'A Study of Early Ming and Yongle Imperial Porcelains excavated at Zhushan, Jingdezhen', in Imperial Hongwu and Yongle Porcelain excavated at Jingdezhen, Taipei, 1996, p. 52.

A closely related example, illustrated in Addis Addis, ‘A group of Underglaze Red’, Transactions of the Oriental Ceramics Society, vol. 31, 1957-1959, fig. 4c, was sold in our London rooms, 19th February 1963, lot 14. The collectors Sir Lionel and Lady Lamb later donated it to the Ashmolean Museum (accession no. EA1969.76) See also another truncated Hongwu vase sold in our Paris rooms, 12th December 2013, lot 182.

Sotheby's. Chinese Art | New York, 18 March 2025