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Lot Essay
It is interesting to note the distinctive use of a ruyi-shaped collar as a decorative design on blue and white ceramics of the Yuan dynasty. On jars of this type, the format of this band is found in two groups. The first group is found to enclose subjects such as birds or mythical creatures against a wave-ground, such as the present example. Other similar jars also include those decorated with mythical horses, illustrated in Sekai toji zenshu, Tokyo, 1981, vol. 13, pl. 53; another with galloping horses above waves illustrated by R. Krahl, Chinese Ceramics in the Topkapi Saray Museum, Istanbul, Part II, 1986, p. 407, pl. 586. The second group of ruyi collars is decorated with either dense floral scrolls or phoenixes in flight amidst flowers, such as the two jars illustrated by Zhu Yu Ping, Yuandai Qinghuaci, Hong Kong, 2000, p. 71, fig. 3-16, from the Boston Fine Art Museum (enclosing flowers); and p. 96, fig. 4-7, from the Cleveland Museum of Art (phoenix).
Compare, also, this ruyi motif applied on a meiping from the Gao'an Museum, included in the exhibition, Yuan and Ming Blue and White Ware from Jiangxi, Hong Kong, 2002, no. 20; the wave-filled ruyi-shaped collar encloses an egret, ducks and other water birds among lotus, in a very similar style to the present guan.
Compare, also, this ruyi motif applied on a meiping from the Gao'an Museum, included in the exhibition, Yuan and Ming Blue and White Ware from Jiangxi, Hong Kong, 2002, no. 20; the wave-filled ruyi-shaped collar encloses an egret, ducks and other water birds among lotus, in a very similar style to the present guan.