Important Chinese Art
Important Chinese Art
A rare silver-mounted blue and white vase, Yuhuchun ping Ming dynasty, Hongwu period | 明洪武 青花纏枝蓮紋玉壺春瓶
Auction Closed
November 3, 05:23 PM GMT
Estimate
50,000 - 70,000 GBP
Lot Details
Description
A rare silver-mounted blue and white vase, Yuhuchun ping
Ming dynasty, Hongwu period
明洪武 青花纏枝蓮紋玉壺春瓶
the swelling pear-shaped body rising from a splayed foot to a slender neck and flared rim, boldly painted around the exterior with a broad band of large lotus blooms borne on and encircled by undulating stems issuing smaller flowerheads and pointed trefoil leaves, all between a band of rolling turbulent waves around the foot and a border of floral sprigs around the shoulders, the neck encircled by a collar of overlapping foliate lappets, the rich blue of intense cobalt tones with darker specks and picked out with 'heaping and piling' effect, the silver mount rendered with further floral blossoms
Height 34.3 cm, 13½ in.
Although yuhuchun ping, pear-shaped bottle vases, were popular during the early MIng period (1368-1644), the present vase is a particularly interesting and unusual example, and the design appears to be unique. It would seem to predate the Yongle (1403-24) and Xuande (1426-35) periods, when the court fastidiously supervised both the patterns and the execution of the porcelains produced at the imperial workshops in Jingdezhen and permitted little individuality. It appears to be more in line with the production of the Hongwu reign (1368-98), when the potters were still able to experiment.
The central lotus scroll looks like an immediate predecessor of the classic Yongle version, that can be seen, for example, on a meiping in the Palace Museum, Beijing, included in Gugong Bowuyuan cang wenwu zhenpin quanji.Qinghua youlihong / The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum. Blue and White Porcelain with Underglazed Red, Shanghai, 2000, vol. 1, pl. 31. The other elements of the decoration, however, are not found among Yongle designs. The seasonal flower sprays on the neck are more closely related to flower sprays on two bowls excavated from the Hongwu stratum of the Ming imperial kiln site, see Jingdezhen chutu Ming chu guanyao ciqi / Imperial Hongwu and Yongle Porcelain Excavated at Jingdezhen, Chang Foundation, Taipei, 1996, cat. nos 11 and 12. The lappet band at the top, the wave band at the bottom, and the plain blue borders in between all display a most individual painting style, for which it is difficult to find comparisons. Vases of this type are typically adorned with bands of pendent ruyi heads, key-fret and petal lappets: compare, for example, a yuhuchun ping decorated with a peony motif, preserved in the Palace Museum, Beijing (accession no. gu-145499).
The dating of this lot is estimated at between 700 and 1100 years ago according to Oxford Authentication Thermoluminescence Analysis Report no.P118b39.