Lot 910. From The Au Bak Ling Collection. A rare blue and white ‘peony scroll’ vase, yuhuchunping, Yuan Dynasty (1279-1368); 28.5 cm high. Price realised HKD 1,841,500 (Estimate HKD 900,000 – HKD 1,500,000) © Christie's Images Ltd 2025
 

Provenance: Sold at Sotheby's London, 11 December 1979, lot 253.

Note: A very similar yuhuchunping, also decorated with a peony scroll, is illustrated in Seikai Toji Zenshu – 13 – Liao, Jin, Yuan, Tokyo, 1981, p. 221, fig. 115. Another similar vase decorated with a lotus scroll in a private collection in the Philippines, is published in Ye Peilan, Yuandai ciqi (Yuan porcelain), Beijing, 1998, pl. 95. A Yuan yuhuchunping decorated overall with a chrysanthemum scroll is in the British Museum, exhibited at Shanghai Museum, Art of Yuan Blue-and-white Porcelain, Shanghai, 2012, pl. 15.

Lot 911. From The Au Bak Ling Collection. A very rare blue and white ‘dragon and peony’ dish, Yuan Dynasty (1279-1368); 17.8 cm diam. Price realised HKD 4,064,000 (Estimate HKD 1,200,000 – HKD 1,800,000) © Christie's Images Ltd 2025
 

Provenance: Sold at Sotheby's London, 6 April 1976, lot 111.

Note: The dragon on this dish bears characteristics of dragons found on earlier works of art on Tang and Song dynasty art, such as the slender curved neck and pointed agape mouth, while displaying traits seen on later Ming and Qing dynasty dragons with a robust body and well-delineated scales. Compare to a very similar dish of larger size (35 cm.), also decorated with a dragon and flaming pearl in the centre surrounded by a peony scroll, from a tomb in Weichang County, Hebei province and now housed in the Weichang County Museum (fig. 1), illustrated in Zhongguo wenwu jinghua daquan: Taoci juan (Complete Masterpieces of Chinese Cultural Relics: Ceramics Volume), Hong Kong, 1993, p. 337, pl. 569. Another bowl decorated with a very similar three-clawed dragon is in the collection of Capital Museum, Beijing, illustrated in Zhu Yuping, Yuandai Qinghua ci, Shanghai, 2000, no. 40.

fig. 1 A blue and white ‘dragon and peony’ dish, Yuan Dynasty (1279-1368); 35cm. Collection of Weichang County Museum Collection