Lot 2980. An Extremely Rare Pale Celadon-Glazed Compressed Globular Jar, Yongle Period (1403-1425); 6 ¼ in. (15.8 cm.) wide, box. Estimate HKD 300,000 - HKD 500,000. Price realised HKD 1,062,500. © Christie's Images Ltd 2021

Of broad, compressed form, the jar is covered all over, and on the base, with an attractive pale 'winter-green' glaze thinning on the short neck and pooling slightly in darker tears beneath three modified biscuit florettes on the sloping shoulders, the interior covered with a crackled white glaze.

Provenance: Tai Sing Fine Antiques Ltd, Hong Kong
A Hong Kong private collection formed in the late 1970s to early 1990s.

Exhibited: Kau Chi Society of Chinese Art, Exhibition of Ancient Chinese Ceramics from the collection of the Kau Chi Society of Chinese Art in association with the Art Gallery, the Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, 19th December 1981 to 18th February 1982, cat. p. 92.

Note: Only very few Yongle porcelains with this delicate, clear, bluish-green glaze have survived, including two Yongle jars of the same form in the Qing Court collections. The jar in the Palace Museum, Beijing, which measures 14.1 cm. across its base is illustrated in Monochrome Porcelain The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum, Hong Kong, 1999, p. 134-5, no. 123, where the glaze colour is described as cuiqing, bluish-green or jade green. The example from the National Palace Museum, Taipei, which measures 12.3 cm., is illustrated in Porcelain of the National Palace Museum, Monochrome Ware of the Ming, Book I, Hong Kong, 1968, p. 50, pls. 10, 10a and 10b, where the colour of the glaze is described as dongqing, 'winter green'. An almost identical example, also with three biscuit florettes on the shoulder, was sold at Christie’s New York, 16-17 September 2010, lot 1357.

An extremely rare pale celadon-glazed compressed globular jar, Yongle period (1403-1425); 6 5/8 in. (16.9 cm.) diam. Estimate 300,000 - USD 500,000. Price realised USD 1,082,500 at Christie’s New York, 16-17 September 2010, lot 1357. © Christie's Image Ltd 2010

Cf. my post: An extremely rare pale celadon-glazed compressed globular jar, Yongle period (1403-1425)

Christie's. Important Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art, Hong Kong, 28 may 2021