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Lot Essay
The present jar and cover belongs to the exceedingly rare group of Yongle monochrome wares covered in a delicate bluish-green glaze traditionally referred to as cuiqing, or “jadeite-green”. Produced at the imperial kilns at Jingdezhen during the early fifteenth century, such wares reflect the remarkable technical experimentation undertaken under the Yongle Emperor, when potters explored new glaze colours, refined porcelain bodies, and innovative firing techniques on an unprecedented scale. Unlike earlier celadons of the Song and Yuan periods, which were generally applied to darker stoneware bodies, Yongle potters achieved a markedly purer and more luminous effect through the combination of a finely levigated white porcelain body and a transparent iron-bearing glaze of exceptional clarity. The resulting surface possesses a soft yet brilliant tone, with a distinctive glassy translucency that distinguishes it from the more olive-toned wintergreen glazes associated with Longquan celadons.
Small covered jars of this elegant type were likely produced for use within the imperial court, possibly intended for the storage of chess pieces or other objects associated with the scholar’s table. Surviving examples remain exceptionally rare. The closest known comparable appears to be a closely related covered jar of similar form and glaze sold at Sotheby’s Hong Kong, 8 October 2009, lot 1624, and again at Sotheby’s Hong Kong, 9 October 2020, lot 19. Two further related covered jars with three loop handles on the shoulder, formerly preserved in the Qing court collection, are now housed respectively in the Palace Museum and the National Palace Museum. The Beijing example is illustrated in Imperial Porcelains from the Reigns of Hongwu and Yongle in the Ming Dynasty, Beijing, 2015, pl. 122, and also published in The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum: Monochrome Porcelain, Hong Kong, 1999, pl. 123. The Taipei example was included in the exhibition Pleasingly Pure and Lustrous: Porcelains from the Yongle Reign (1403-1424) of the Ming Dynasty, Taipei, 2017, pp. 82-83. Another related jar with loop handles, lacking its cover, is preserved in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston and illustrated in Wu Tung, Earth Transformed: Chinese Ceramics in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Boston, 1998, pp. 112-113. An additional example, formerly with loop handles subsequently ground down, was sold at Christie’s New York, 16-17 September 2010, lot 1357.
Comparable forms are also known among Yongle sweet-white wares decorated with incised anhua designs, including an example in the Shanghai Museum, illustrated in Lu Minghua, Studies of the Shanghai Museum Collections: Ming Imperial Porcelain, Shanghai, 2007, pl. 4-12. The rarity of surviving examples, together with the technical sophistication required to achieve this luminous glaze successfully, attests to the exceptional technical and aesthetic refinement achieved at the Yongle imperial kilns.
Small covered jars of this elegant type were likely produced for use within the imperial court, possibly intended for the storage of chess pieces or other objects associated with the scholar’s table. Surviving examples remain exceptionally rare. The closest known comparable appears to be a closely related covered jar of similar form and glaze sold at Sotheby’s Hong Kong, 8 October 2009, lot 1624, and again at Sotheby’s Hong Kong, 9 October 2020, lot 19. Two further related covered jars with three loop handles on the shoulder, formerly preserved in the Qing court collection, are now housed respectively in the Palace Museum and the National Palace Museum. The Beijing example is illustrated in Imperial Porcelains from the Reigns of Hongwu and Yongle in the Ming Dynasty, Beijing, 2015, pl. 122, and also published in The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum: Monochrome Porcelain, Hong Kong, 1999, pl. 123. The Taipei example was included in the exhibition Pleasingly Pure and Lustrous: Porcelains from the Yongle Reign (1403-1424) of the Ming Dynasty, Taipei, 2017, pp. 82-83. Another related jar with loop handles, lacking its cover, is preserved in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston and illustrated in Wu Tung, Earth Transformed: Chinese Ceramics in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Boston, 1998, pp. 112-113. An additional example, formerly with loop handles subsequently ground down, was sold at Christie’s New York, 16-17 September 2010, lot 1357.
Comparable forms are also known among Yongle sweet-white wares decorated with incised anhua designs, including an example in the Shanghai Museum, illustrated in Lu Minghua, Studies of the Shanghai Museum Collections: Ming Imperial Porcelain, Shanghai, 2007, pl. 4-12. The rarity of surviving examples, together with the technical sophistication required to achieve this luminous glaze successfully, attests to the exceptional technical and aesthetic refinement achieved at the Yongle imperial kilns.