AN EXCEPTIONALLY FINE AND RARE BLUE AND WHITE JUE STAND MING DYNASTY, YONGLE PERIOD

THIS IS A PREMIUM LOT. CLIENTS WHO WISH TO BID ON PREMIUM LOTS MAY BE REQUESTED BY SOTHEBY'S TO COMPLETE THE PRE-REGISTRATION APPLICATION FORM AND TO DELIVER TO SOTHEBY'S A DEPOSIT OF HK$1,000,000, OR SUCH OTHER HIGHER AMOUNT AS MAY BE DETERMINED BY SOTHEBY'S, AND ANY FINANCIAL REFERENCES, GUARANTEES AND/OR SUCH OTHER SECURITY AS SOTHEBY'S MAY REQUIRE IN ITS ABSOLUTE DISCRETION AS SECURITY FOR THEIR BID. THE BIDnow ONLINE BIDDING SERVICE IS NOT AVAILABLE FOR PREMIUM LOTS.



comprising a dish with an everted rim, raised on four cloud-shaped feet, with a tall conical mountain-shaped support in the centre set with a concave top and three tubular recesses to receive the legs of a jue, the support modelled with sharp peaks and painted with turbulent waves crashing around the base, surrounded by two finely painted five-clawed dragons swimming in surging water, bordered on the rim by a 'classic' scroll band, the exterior painted with tiny lotus sprays on the rim, sides and feet, the base left unglazed exposing the body fired to a bright orange colour

Collection of Frederick M. Mayer.
Christie's London, 25th June 1974, lot 87.

Chinese Blue and White Porcelain. 14th to 19th Centuries, The Oriental Ceramic Society at The Arts Council Gallery, London, 1953-4, cat. no. 39 (illustrated pl. 8a).
Chinese Ceramics from the Meiyintang Collection, The British Museum, London, 1994.

H.M. Garner and M. Medley, Chinese Art in Three-Dimensional Colour, Portland, Oregon, 1969, vol. IV, reel 3, no. 1.
Anthony du Boulay, Christie's Pictorial History of Chinese Ceramics, London, 1984, p. 119, pl. 2.
Regina Krahl, Chinese Ceramics from the Meiyintang Collection, London, 1994-2010, vol. 2, no. 672.

There are few firing cracks encircling the base of the mountain. One crack runs horizontally around roughly half of the base of the mountain. There are about five other firing cracks running vertically from the base of the mountain. The underside of the dish also has a few firing cracks as well as on the feet. The overall condition is very good.
"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."

Dragons Encircling the Isles of the Blessed
Regina Krahl

Tripod wine vessels in the shape of archaic bronze jue had in the Ming dynasty an important function in ritual, but were not necessarily always used together with stands. Whereas several early Ming jue are recorded, only one other jue stand of this type appears to be preserved, in the National Palace Museum, Taipei. Porcelain jue in monochrome whiteare in fact well known from the early Ming dynasty, but no matching stands have been recorded. Ritual vessels of the Yongle period were generally glazed in monochrome colours – white, red, blue and yellow –, their colours signifying different functions in different ceremonies. Blue-and-white ritual vessels of any kind are extremely rare prior to the Xuande period, when many stem bowls were produced in blue-and-white, inscribed with the Xuande reign mark. The discovery of a fragmentary jue and stand of the present type in the Yongle stratum of the Ming imperial kiln sites confirms, however, the exceptionally early date of the present piece.

The usage and form of jue standsof this type known as xie jue shan pan (mountain plate for resting a jue) probably derives from metal prototypes. A silver twin jue stand, of rectangular form, similarly raised on ruyi-shaped feet, conceived to hold a gold and a silver jue on two mountain supports surrounded by floating dragons, was excavated from the opulent tomb of Zhu Zhanji, Prince Zhuang of Liang (1411-1441), ninth son of the Hongxi Emperor who ruled for less than a year between the Yongle and Xuande reigns. The prince was buried in 1441 in Zhongxiang, Hubei province, together with over 5000 precious objects, many of them dating from the Yongle period, including blue-and-white and other porcelain stem bowls; see Liang Zhu, ed., Liang Zhuangwang mu/Mausoleum of Prince Liang Zhuangwang, Beijing, 2007, vol. 1, with the jue and stand illustrated p. 41, figs 41 and 42, and vol. 2, pl. 33 (fig. 0).

Although no imperial tombs besides that of the Wanli emperor have been excavated, some known earlier gold vessels suggest that his tomb furnishings followed a relatively fixed pattern for an imperial mausoleum. They included a gold jue with a circular stand similar to the present piece, formed with a flat rim and a mountain-shaped support surrounded by dragons, probably conceived after an early Ming gold prototype; see Dingling duo ying/The Royal Treasures of Dingling Imperial Ming Tomb, Beijing, 1989, pl. 71 (fig. 1).

The jue used with these stands were modelled on bronze ritual wine vessels used in the late Shang dynasty (late 2nd millennium BC) in rituals to worship the ancestors. Similar usage in later periods would suggest a Confucian context. The present stand with its three mountain peaks washed round by waves seems, however, designed to evoke the Isles of the Blessed – abode of the Immortals – and as such also conforms toDaoist concepts that evolved in the Qin and Han dynasties (3rd to 2nd century BC).

The only other porcelain jue stand of this type and this early date that appears to be preserved, is a piece in the National Palace Museum, Taiwan, apparently identical to the Meiyintang example and still retaining its jue; see Ciqishang de longwentezhan/Special Exhibition of Dragon-Motif Porcelain, National Palace Museum, Taipei, 1983, cat. no. 56 (fig. 2). A fragmentary set, also of the same design, excavated from the Yongle stratum of the Ming imperial kiln site in Jingdezhen, is published in Jingdezhen Zhushan chutu Yongle guanyao ciqi [Yongle Imperial porcelain excavated at Zhushan, Jingdezhen], Capital Museum, Beijing, 2007, cat. no. 98 (fig. 3).

Two monochrome white jue reconstructed from sherds found at the Ming imperial kiln site are illustrated ibid. cat. no. 18, and in Imperial Porcelain of the Yongle and Xuande Periods Excavated from the Site of the Ming Imperial Factory at Jingdezhen, Hong Kong Museum of Art, Hong Kong, 1989, cat. no. 17.

Similar sets of jue and stands continued to be used throughout the Ming and Qing dynasties. A similarly decorated example of the late Ming period is illustrated in Suzanne G. Valenstein, The Herzman Collection of Chinese Ceramics, New York, 1992, pl. 77; and one of Qianlong mark and period in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, decorated with cranes among clouds, is published in Rose Kerr, Chinese Ceramics. Porcelain of the Qing Dynasty 1644-1911, London, 1998 (1986), pl. 44.