Lot 15. Rare coupe à pied en porcelaine bleu blanc, Dynastie Yuan. Estimation 15,000 — 20,000 €. Photo Sotheby's

les bords évasés, l’intérieur librement peint de petites fleurs de lotus dans un médaillon, les bords décorés d’une frise d’arabesques, l’extérieur orné de branches de prunus en fleur et d’un croissant de lune, l’ensemble reposant sur un haut pied conique, accidents
Diam. 9,5 cm; 3 3/4  in.

A rare blue and white stem cup, Yuan dynasty

Provenance: Collection of William Kenneth Slatcher C.V.O. (1926-1997), High Commissioner of the United Kingdom, in Beijing between 1958 and 1961 (by repute).
Thence in the family by descent.

Note: Porcelain cups or shallow bowls raised on a high flared foot were a popular ceramic shape under the under the Mongols during the Yuan dynasty. They are among the earliest blue and white porcelains and were decorated with designs of striding sinuous dragons or thin branches set with flower blossoms or meandering leafy flower scrolls. Often, as on the present example, the designs were boldly and freely painted and sometimes highlighted with underlying moulded designs. Compare a stembowl similarly decorated with leafy flower scrolls, illustrated with other examples of blue and white stemcups of the Yuan period in The Complete Works of Chinese Ceramics, vol. 11. xia, Yuan, Shanghai, 2000, cat. no. 206, and cat. nos. 197-210. See also several examples excavated from hoards Jining, Inner Mongolia, Xingang, Anhui province and Gao'an, Jiangxi province, published in Splendors in Smalt: Art of Yuan Blue and White Porcelain, Shanghai, 2012, pls. 77-80

Sotheby's. Arts d'Asie, Paris, 23 juin 2016, 10:30 AM