AN EXTREMELY RARE AND SUPERB BLUE AND WHITE 'LOTUS SCROLL' VASE, YUHUCHUNPING MING DYNASTY, CHENGHUA PERIOD |

beautifully potted with a pear-shaped body rising from a splayed foot, elegantly sweeping up to a waisted neck flaring at the rim, the exterior boldly painted with large lotus blooms borne on a leafy meander above overlapping petal lappets, below upright plantain leaves, an undulating lingzhi scroll and pendent trefoils encircling the neck, all divided by line borders repeated at the rim and the foot, covered overall in an unctuous glaze with a faint bluish tinge

Collection of Y.C. Chen.
Christie's Hong Kong, 29th May 2013, lot 1936, catalogued as 18th century.

The vase is in excellent condition, with only a natural 0.1x0.3cm glaze flake to the mouth resulting from an original burst bubble. The glaze displays the typical silkiness associated with the period.
"In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective, qualified opinion. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

Towards a Distinctive Style
A Superb Chenghua Vase Blue and white wares of the Chenghua period are extremely rare and even rarer are those of this exceptional quality, upright form and large size. Chenghua porcelain in general displays a very distinct character both in terms of the material and the style of decoration. Initially heavily influenced by the attractive style of the Xuande reign, the Chenghua potters gradually developed their own distinctive sophisticated style by making a deliberate move away from earlier models, perhaps most evident in the idiosyncratic forms and designs that were developed. The present vase is a fine and unique example of such transformation; while its motifs and form are rooted in traditions established from the beginning of the Ming dynasty, they are presented in an unusual yet strikingly elegant manner.

Veiled with a lustrous silky glaze, this vase can be identified as a mid-Chenghua period creation. ‘Softer’ to the touch than its predecessors, it marks the move away from the crisp and glossy glazes of the finest Xuande wares and towards the muted, velvety glaze of the famous Chenghua palace bowls. It is interesting to compare the current vase to two meiping decorated with vibrant foliate scrolls, which can be attributed to the early years of Chenghua through its glaze and cobalt that are closer to the Xuande type; see a pair from the collection of Robert C. Bruce, sold in our London rooms, 12th May 1953, lot 87, one of which entered the H.R.N. Norton and J.T. Tai collections, and sold in our London rooms, 5th November 1963, lot 160, and again in these rooms, 8th October 2010, lot 2622, the other sold in our London rooms 1st/2nd April 1974, lot 197, and again in these rooms, 16th May 1989, lot 18, from the British Rail Pension Fund. These meiping were reunited briefly in the 1970s at Hugh Moss Ltd, when both were illustrated together in Adrian Joseph, Ming Porcelain. Their Origins and Development, London, 1971, pl. 39.

The minor alterations to the classic yuhuchun form result in a decidedly different product. The shape was favoured by the Hongwu Emperor (r. 1368-1398) and subsequently adorned with a variety of decorative bands, a style that continued to be developed and modified in the succeeding Yongle (r. 1403-1424) and Xuande (r. 1426-1435) reigns. The elegant silhouette of the present vase is achieved through two modifications from its predecessors: a taller splayed foot with a countersunk stepped base and a slightly higher swell of the body. To complement the streamlined form, the craftsman has skilfully incorporated the white negative space as important elements in the overall design to capture a fresh sense of harmony and modernity.

It is notable that the trio of bands on the neck, namely the tightly drawn stiff leaves, the foliate scroll and ruyi heads, is rarely found on Ming vases yet was adopted as the standard design for yuhuchunping in the eighteenth century; only one other Yongle vase adorned with a similar scheme, but the body painted with a garden of banana leaves, bamboo and rocks, appears to have been published, from the Qing Court collection, preserved in the Palace Museum, Beijing, and included in the Museum’s exhibition Imperial Porcelains from the reigns of Hongwu and Yongle in the Ming Dynasty, 2015, cat. no. 103. Notably, this Yongle vase also has a short flared foot, which is more akin to that of the present vase and contrasts from the commonly used straight foot. 

A line drawing of a similar lingzhi scroll dated to the Chenghua period, also with an outlined stem and leaves emitting from behind the fungus, is published in Geng Baochang, Ming Qing ciqi jiandin [Appraisal of Ming and Qing Porcelains], Hong Kong, 1993, fig. 175 middle right.

Each concise yet freely painted stroke is visible on the decoration of this vase and reflects the intentional and derivative nature of the changing aesthetic of the era. After decades of importing Lajiward cobalt from the Middle East, by the mid-fifteenth century it was reaching the end of its supply. As a result, the government began to mine the domestic Bo Tang mine in Jingdezhen. This elegant mid-hue pigment, with several rich and light distinct layers, was distinctly different from the deep and intense colour characteristic of early-Ming porcelain. Ink-like in texture and more even than the foreign type, this pigment was devoid of ‘heaping and piling’; thus designs that highlighted the beauty of this cobalt were developed. The individually rendered lotus petals and the carefully shaded stiff leaves of the present piece point to the control craftsmen were able to exert over the medium, and the resulting ink painting effect they were able to achieve.

Chenghua period vessels are rare, with the majority of extant vessels consisting of smaller utility vessels such as bowl and dishes. Liu Xinyuan describes the volume of fragments recovered from the site of the Ming imperial kilns at Zhushan, Jingdezhen, Jiangxi province, where the Chenghua fragments equal less than half those unearthed from the Xuande stratum, even though the latter period was so much shorter (see Liu Xinyuan, 'Reconstructing Chenghua Porcelain from Historical Records', The Emperor's Broken china: Reconstructing Chenghua Porcelain, Sotheby's London, 1995, p. 11).

Amongst the larger vessels made in the Chenghua period, see a pear-shape vase decorated with similarly rendered lotus scrolls, on a tall flared foot and flanked with handles, from the collection of L.A. Basmadgieff, sold in our London rooms, 11th December 1979, lot 278, and again in these rooms, 8th April 2011, lot 3199; a bottle vase painted with phoenix among lotus scrolls, published in The Emperor's Broken china: Reconstructing Chenghua Porcelain, ibid., pl. 47, together with a fragmentary ewer, pl. 48; and a lobed vase, from the Qing Court collection and still in Beijing, illustrated in The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum. Blue and White Porcelain with Underglazed Red (II), Shanghai, 2000, pl. 1. Compare also a meiping attributed to the Chenghua period, included in Geng Baochang, op. cit., p. 88, fig. 150, together with a guan jar, fig. 152; and a ‘lotus bud’ vase, col. pl. 33 and fig. 151, to be offered in our New York rooms, 20th March 2018, lot 113.