Lot 1033. A very rare blue and white ‘chrysanthemum’ jar, Yuan dynasty (1279-1368); 17 cm high. Price realised HKD 1,651,000 (Estimate HKD 800,000 – HKD 1,200,000). © Christie's Images Ltd 2025
 

Provenance: Property of a Gentleman, sold at Sotheby’s London, 20 February 1968, lot 87
The Property of R.L. Banks, Esq., M.C., sold at Sotheby’s London 25 March 1975, lot 235

Note: The jar rises from a broad, gently recessed foot to a full, rounded body with softly swelling shoulders, narrowing into a short upright neck. Decorated in rich underglaze blue—typical of the finest Yuan dynasty wares.

Below the floral designs, each rendered in luxuriant detail upon meandering leafy stems, are upright lappets. The motif of cloud-like trefoils and rings balances the densely patterned scroll above, reflecting a well-established decorative convention of the period that complements the form of the vessel and enhances the harmony of the design. The tonalities of such lappets bear similarities to those illustrated in So Gen no bijutsu (Art of the Song and Yuan Dynasties), Osaka Municipal Art Museum, vol. 4, Osaka, 1978, no. 1-233; yet are strikingly similar to the blue and white ‘peony’ jar sold at Sotheby’s London, 10 November 2010, lot 32.

Framing the upper register, a composite clematis scroll unfurls before rising to a classic mid-fourteenth-century band, see a jar with similar floral compositions in the Shanghai Museum collection, exhibited in Splendors in Smalt: Art of Yuan Blue-and-white Porcelain, Shanghai, 2012, no. 7. The short upright neck reveals sinuous serpentine waves, swirling and breaking to evoke vivid motion. The free-spirited character of this unusually small jar reflects a liberty afforded to Jingdezhen potters during the Yuan period—a freedom later curtailed by the more formalised designs of the Ming dynasty. A variant of this scheme appears in The Exquisite Chinese Artifacts, Collection of Ching Wan Society, National History Museum, Taipei, 1995, p. 149, lot 87, which displays three narrow scrolls of the same pattern on a classic Yuan meiping.

The chrysanthemum design is especially auspicious, symbolising longevity and vitality. Comparable examples include a jar from the Ronald W. Longsdorf collection, sold at Christie’s Hong Kong, 12 April 2018, lot 25; and another of similar design on the neck from the collection of R. L. Bank Esq., sold in London, 9 December 1975, lot 125, and later sold at Christie’s Hong Kong, 30 October 2001, lot 781. Beyond their association with autumn and the ninth lunar month, chrysanthemums were also celebrated for their health-giving properties, first recorded in the Han dynasty (206–220). The dynamic serpentine waves at the neck, combined with the luxuriant floral scrolls, imbue the vessel with a sense of renewal and life.

The lavish use of imported cobalt indicates that this jar was exceptionally costly to produce. Surviving examples remain limited, and each was painstakingly finished by hand. Related pieces include a ‘peony’ jar from The Jingguantang Collection, Part II, sold at Christie’s New York, 20 March 1997, lot 69, and later at Christie’s Hong Kong, 31 May 2010, lot 1985; a larger jar in the Idemitsu Museum of Arts, Tokyo, illustrated in Chinese Ceramics in the Idemitsu Collection, Tokyo, 1987, pl. 617.