AN IMPORTANT EARLY MING BLUE AND WHITE EWER, ZHIHU

Details
AN IMPORTANT EARLY MING BLUE AND WHITE EWER, ZHIHU
YONGLE

The pear-shaped body with an elegant curved spout, joined to the neck with a cloud-shaped strut opposite a ridged loop handle above three moulded bosses simulating pegs holding the handle in place, finely painted in attractive tones of cobalt to each side of the body with a large peony issuing leafy scrolls, above a band of upright lotus lappets at the base, and below a frieze of lingzhi scrolls at the tapering neck, with a further band of lotus lappets below the dish-shaped mouth (handle restuck with associated hairline, tip of spout restored)
10 7/8 in. (27.7 cm.) high, box
Literature
Krahl, Regina, 'The T.T. Tsui Collection of Chinese Ceramics', Orientations, December 1989, p. 39, fig. 16.

Lot Essay

No other ewers of this design appear to be recorded.

It is more common to find ewers decorated with peonies or fruits enclosed within quatrefoil or cinquefoil panels. Only two related examples of this rare design with larger peony scrolls are known. One illustrated by Krahl, Chinese Ceramics in the Topkapi Saray Museum, Istanbul, vol. II, no. 619; another with spout missing is illustrated by Misugi in Chinese Procelain Collection in the Near East, Topkapi and Ardebil, vol. III, no. A80, p. 158.

Compare also with ewers decorated with denser peony scrolls issuing smaller flower-heads on the body. Cf. the one illustrated by Misugi, op. cit., no. A81, p. 159. Another with six small peony blooms from the Osaka Museum is illustrated in Ming and Qing Ceramics and Works of Art, no. 1.9, p. 12; another is recorded by Pope in Chinese Porcelains from the Ardebil Shrine, pl. 54, no. 29.428.

(US$100,000-150,000)

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