Lot 271. A rare Ming-style blue and white ewer and cover, 18th century, 11½ in. (29.3 cm.) high. Estimate GBP 30,000 - GBP 50,000. Price realised GBP 51,650 © Christie's Images Ltd 2011

Decorated in the Ming style with simulated 'heaping and piling' with a shaped cartouche on each side, one enclosing a peach branch, the other a loquat branch, each flanked by ascending flower stems, all between a band of petal lappets below and bands of foliate scroll and upright leaves on the neck, the curved strap handle decorated with detached lingzhi sprigs and applied on top with a foliate scroll, the curved spout decorated with leafy meander above a ruyi border and joined to the neck by a cloud-shaped strut, the gently domed cover with meadering lotus scrolls surmounted by a small loop.

Note: The design of these Qing dynasty ewers was a precise copy of blue and white porcelain ewers from the early 15th century. For a Yongle (AD 1403-24) vessel of this type from the Qing court collection in the Palace Museum, Beijing, see The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum - 34 - Blue and White Porcelain with Underglazed Red (I), Hong Kong, 2000, p. 43, no. 41. A ewer with the same decoration, but bearing a Xuande reign mark (AD 1426-35), also from the Qing court collection, and in the Palace Museum is illustrated ibid., p. 121, no. 115. A number of comparable Qing versions of this ewer design have been preserved in collections around the world. For similar examples, see R. Krahl and J. Ayers, Chinese Ceramics in the Topkapi Saray Museum, Istanbul, vol. III, Qing Dynasty Porcelains, London, 1986, p. 1106, no. 2565; The S. C. Ko Tianminlou Collection - Chinese Porcelain, Part II, Hong Kong Museum of Art, 1987, p. 86, no. 59; The Tsui Museum of Art - Chinese Ceramics IV - Qing, Hong Kong, 1995, no. 78; for one in the British Museum see J. Ayers and M. Sato, Sekai toji zenshu - 15 - Qing, Tokyo, 1983, p. 152, no. 161; and in the Nanjing Museum see Zhongguo qingdai guanyao ciqi, Shanghai, 2003, p. 214, among others.