Lot 1327. A pair of rare small blue and white ewers and covers, 18th-19th century; 2 5/8 in. (6.6 cm.) high. Estimate USD 15,000 - USD 25,000. Price realised USD 255,750. © Christie's Images Ltd 2013

Each ewer is delicately potted with a globular body raised on a spreading foot with a pie-crust border, and is finely painted around the sides with a wide band of vertical foliate scrolls bordered by double lines and interrupted on one side by a long curving spout emerging from the mouth of a mythical beast, all set within further foliate scroll borders. The domed covers are decorated with stylized geometric and floral bands below the pink-enameled bud-form finial raised on a gilt support, cloth box, wood stands.

Provenance: J.M. Hu Collection.

Note: Only one other ewer of this rare form and decoration appears to have been published. A ewer of identical size, but bearing a four-character Tui si tang zhi (Hall for Retirement and Contemplation) mark, in the collection of the National Museum of China, illustrated in Zhongguo guojia bowuguan yanjiu congshu, Shanghai, 2007, no. 134, where it is dated to the Daoguang period.