Lot 1451. A blue and white pear-shaped bottle, yuhuchunping, Yuan dynasty (1279-1368); 10 3/8 in. (26.5 cm.) high. Estimate USD 30,000 - USD 50,000. Price realised USD 50,000. © Christie's Image Ltd 2013. 

The spreading body is raised on a flared foot and is painted around the sides with two phoenixes in flight amidst peony scroll between narrow decorative borders and bands of scroll-filled petal lappets above and below. The upper neck and mouth have been replaced, double Japanese wood box.

Note: Yuhuchun vases, with its elegantly-shaped pear-form body, have been cherished in China since Five Dynasties (907-960). As William Watson noted in Tang and Liao Ceramics, London, 1984, pl. 63, this form is 'one of the purest expressions of the feeling for delicately carving, unarticulated profiles.' Some scholars have suggested that one of the uses for pear-shaped vases was as a decanter for wine (see Ho Chuimei, 'Social Life under the Mongols as seen in Ceramics', Transactions of the Oriental Ceramic Society, Vol. 59, 1994-95, pp. 41-42), and Yuan dynasty paintings, book illustrations as well as burials and tomb murals further prove this may have been the case.

Christie's. Fine Chinese Ceramics & Works of Art, New York, 21 - 22 March 2013