Lot 313. An important, very rare and large Early Ming copper-red-decorated jar, guan, Hongwu period (1368-1398). Estimate £30,000 – £50,000 ($46,170 - $76,950). Price realised GBP 338,500. Photo Christie's Image Ltd 2015

The jar is powerfully potted with tapered sides, supported on a thick foot rim with a recessed base. The body of the vessel is formed of twelve lobed segments, each painted with leafy floral sprays including day lily, lotus, pomegranate, tree peony, chysanthemum, camellia, herbaceous peony, hibiscus, rose and lotus blooms, below further lotus blooms and cloud scrolls encircling the shoulder and neck. The base is similarly painted with lotus sprays, above a band of classic scroll and below a key-fret border and a band of lappets. 20 1/16 in. (51 cm.) high

Provenance: From a private French collection, acquired by the present owner’s grandparents in China prior to 1929, and thence by descent within the family.

Notes: Several examples with this design, decorated in copper red or in cobalt blue, are known in both public and private collections. Compare the present lot to three jars decorated in copper red: one in the Umezawa Kinekan Museum, Tokyo, illustrated in Sekai Toji Zenshu, Tokyo, 1955, vol. 13, p. fig. 85; one in the Shanghai Museum, illustrated in Underglaze Blue and Red, Shanghai, 1987, fig. 34; the last in the British Museum illustrated by Soame Jenyns, Ming Pottery and Porcelain, London, 1953, pl. 18. 

Other published examples include one in the Matsuoka Museum of Art, illustrated in Selected Masterpieces of Oriental Ceramics, Japan, 1983, pl. 44; another in the Baur Collection, illustrated by J. Ayers, Chinese Ceramics in the Baur Collection, vol. 1, Geneva, 1999, pl. 59; and the jar sold at Christie's Hong Kong, The Imperial Sale, 26 April 1999, lot 551.

Christie's. FINE CHINESE CERAMICS & WORKS OF ART, 10 November 2015, London, King Street