Lot 42. A Blue and White Pear-Shaped Vase, Circa 1640-60; 40cm, 15 3/4 in. Estimate 20,000 - 30,000 GBP. Lot sold157,250 GBP. Photo Sotheby's

the pear-shaped body rising from a straight base to a tall waisted neck, painted to the exterior with scholars and attendants in a mountainous landscape with tiered pavilions, the neck with a pair of birds amongst blossoming prunus, all divided by incised chevron borders

Provenance: A Hong Kong private collection.
Sotheby’s Hong Kong, 16th November 1973, lot 175.

Exhibited: Chinese Blue and White Porcelain and Related Underglaze Red, City Museum and Art Gallery, Hong Kong, 1975, cat. no. 80.
Transitional Wares and Their Forerunners, Hong Kong Museum of Art, Hong Kong, 1981, cat. no. 67.
Chinese Ceramics of the Transitional Period (circa 1620-1680 A.D.) from the Collection of Mr & Mrs Peter Thompson, Hull University, Hull, 1985, cat. no. 89.

Note: This vase represents the experimental nature of ceramics characteristic of the mid-17th century following the late-Ming court suspending its commissions of porcelain production. The introduction of new patrons freed potters and painters to explore a wide range of styles beyond those previously prescribed by the court. The dramatically long waisted neck and proportionately small body of this vase, coupled with the two unrelated designs of birds amongst flowers and a landscape scene that are given equal importance reflect the atypical nature of porcelain of this period.A vase of related form but with a wider neck and slender body, similarly painted with a figural scene on the body and birds amidst flowers on the neck, was sold in these rooms, 9th May 1989, lot 32. Vases with similarly swooping necks, but with a larger more globular body, are commonly known painted with stylised flower sprays on the neck and figural scenes on the body; for example see one illustrated in Topkapi Museum, Istanbul. Chinese China and the Kitchens by Photographs, Istanbul, 1973, pl. 18; one from the collection of W.W. Winkworth, 13th February 1973, lot 79; and a third sold in our Hong Kong rooms, 23rdMay 1978, lot 73.