A rare blue and white 'lotus' ewer, Ming dynasty, Yongle period |明永樂 青花纏枝蓮紋執壺

Sotheby's London, 1st February 1966, lot 155.

Collection of Dr Wou Kiuan (1910-1997).

Wou Lien-Pai Museum, 1968-present, coll. no. M.6.1. 

倫敦蘇富比1966年2月1日，編號155

吳權博士 (1910-1997) 收藏

吳蓮伯博物院，1968年至今，編號M.6.1

Rose Kerr et al., Chinese Antiquities from the Wou Kiuan Collection. Wou Lien-Pai Museum, Hong Kong, 2011, pl. 113.

柯玫瑰等，《Chinese Antiquities from the Wou Kiuan Collection. Wou Lien-Pai Museum》，香港，2011年，圖版113

Art and Exchange in the Yongle Reign

Although blue and white ewers of this form are known with various flower or fruit designs, the present piece is particularly impressive with its large and bold, but also finely lotus blooms; only one closely related vessel appears to have been recorded.

The form of the pear-shaped ewers, which is believed to emanate from a Middle Eastern metal shape, may in fact have developed from small egg-shaped ewers produced in the Southern Song dynasty (1127-1279), which had shorter spouts and no separate neck and therefore lacked the joining strut. In the Yuan dynasty (1279-1368) already a form similar to the present one had appeared. Compare, for example, a celadon ewer recovered from a shipwreck sunk off Shinan, Korea in 1323, illustrated in Relics Salvaged from the Seabed off Sinan. Materials I, Seoul, 1985, pl. 125. The form was then refined in proportions and reached its most mature, balanced shape in the Yongle reign (1403-24), when this vessel was made.

An ewer of a closely related design to the present piece, painted in underglaze blue with a large stylised lotus flower between scrolling leaves and flower buds on either side, the top of spout and neck replaced by domed and arcaded tombak mounts with detachable cover and chain, was included in the exhibition Doha, Capitale Culturelle Arabe 2010, Ambassade du Qatar à Paris, 2010 and subsequently sold in these rooms, 5^th October 2011, lot 348. The metal mounts, as on this piece, were added in the Middle East, perhaps in the Ottoman empire. Although in China these ewers were used for wine, in the Middle East they would have been accompanied by basins or deep dishes for religious cleansings and for washing hands at mealtimes. See, for example, a Ming (1368-1644) blue-and-white ewer with Ottoman mounts in the Topkapi Saray Museum, Istanbul, included in the exhibition Turks: A Journey of a Thousand Years, 600-1600, Royal Academy of Art, London, 2005, cat. no. 273.

Similar ewers decorated with peonies instead of lotuses also found their way to the Middle East: one with the bridge to the spout and loop on the handle missing, in the Topkapi Saray Museum, Istanbul, is illustrated in Regina Krahl, Chinese Ceramics in the Topkapi Saray Museum, Istanbul, ed. John Ayers, vol. II, London, 1986, no. 619; another missing part of its spout, from the Ardabil Shrine and now in the National Museum of Iran, Tehran, published in T. Misugi, Chinese Porcelain Collections in the Near East: Topkapi and Ardebil, vol. III, Hong Kong, 1981, pl. A80; and a third, today in the collection of Musée Guimet, Paris (accession no. MA12714), recently included in the exhibition West Encounters East: A Cultural Conversation between Chinese and European Ceramics, Shanghai Museum, Shanghai, 2021-2022, is reputed to have been brought to France in 1547 by François de Fumel, who was appointed by Henry II of France as a diplomat to the court of the Ottoman sultan Suleiman I in Constantinople. While imperial blue and white wares from the Yongle and Xuande (1426-35) periods played a vital role in diplomacy for the Ming court, the fact that the Guimet ewer travelled from China to the Middle East and subsequently to Europe exemplifies the intricate global network and exchange in the early modern period.

東藝西漸：大明永樂與西域的文化交流

此款青花執壺之花果紋飾作例甚為多見，唯本壺尺寸龐大、蓮紋細膩而筆法流利，僅一例可比。

執壺器呈梨形，一般認爲源自中東金屬器，實際或發展自南宋（1127-1279年）原型，後者壺身呈橢圓，壺流較短而無壺頸。故此壺流及壺頸之間亦無托子。與本品器型相近之作例，可參考1323年新安沉船出水一件青花執壺，錄於《Relics Salvaged from the Seabed off Sinan》，首爾，1985年，卷1，圖版125。明永樂年間，執壺形狀發展成熟，比例更見匀稱。

比較一例，與本品紋飾相近，壺身繪蓮花一朵，兩旁飾卷葉及花蕾，配黃銅流尖及頸，蓋及鏈，曾展於《Doha, Capitale Culturelle Arabe 2010》，卡塔爾駐巴黎大使館，2010 年，後售於倫敦蘇富比2011 年 10 月 5 日，編號 348。本壺之金屬蓋由中東藝匠後加，或於奧斯曼帝國加工。執壺在中國多為盛酒用，於中東則配盆成套，用於宗教儀式，或供餐前洗手。比較一明朝青花執壺例，金屬配件亦加工於奧斯曼帝國，現藏伊斯坦布爾Topkapi Saray Museum，曾展於《Turks: A Journey of a Thousand Years, 600-1600》，倫敦皇家美術學院展覽，編號 273。

牡丹紋執壺例亦有傳至中東：一例壺流與頸之間托子缺失，現藏於伊斯坦布爾Topkapi Saray Museum，圖載康蕊君，《Chinese Ceramics in the Topkapi Saray Museum, Istanbul》，John Ayers編，卷2，倫敦，1986 年，編號619；另一例壺流部份缺失，出自伊朗阿德比爾聖廟，現藏於德黑蘭伊朗國家博物館，載於三杉隆敏，《中近東之中國瓷器：托普卡比皇宮與阿德比爾聖廟》，香港，1981年，卷3，圖版A80；再比一例，現為巴黎吉美藝術館藏，近期曾展於上海博物館《東西匯融：中歐陶瓷與文化交流特展》，2021-2022 年，據傳與1547年由法國弗朗索瓦·德·菲梅勒男爵攜至法國，當時，菲梅勒受命於法王亨利二世，作為外交使節前往君士坦丁堡，覲見奧斯曼帝國蘇萊曼一世。明永樂和宣德時期御製青花瓷乃當時外交重要之物，而此壺先從中土傳至中東，後再流入歐洲，見證該時期各國交流。