Eight centuries of enduring excellence: iconic ceramics from the Ai Lian Tang Collection

In Autumn 2025, Christie’s Hong Kong Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art department presented the dedicated sale The Ai Lian Tang Collection – Imperial Scholar’s Objects, achieving impressive results. Building on this success, we are delighted to present The Ai Lian Tang Collection – 800 Years of Chinese Ceramics this spring, featuring twenty iconic works from one of the world’s most discerning private collections of Chinese art. The sale brings together some of the most celebrated and representative examples in the history of Chinese ceramics, showcasing the depth, diversity and refined sophistication of this distinguished private collection. They have a wealth of provenance including that from other major collections, such as the Charles Oswald Liddell Collection, R.H.R. Palmer Collection, the Edward T. Chow Collection, the Paul and Helen Bernat Collection, the British Rail Pension Fund, the Toguri Museum of Art, and the Robert Chang Collection.

Yuan dynasty blue-and-white porcelain is celebrated for its luminous cobalt palette, robust yet refined body and glaze, and its vivid, finely executed decoration—qualities that together convey a unique cultural dynamism at once spirited and serene. As one of China’s earliest globally traded luxury commodities, Yuan blue-and-white porcelain was exported widely across Central, West, South and Southeast Asia, as well as Europe, bearing witness to the era’s cross-cultural exchange and assuming a pivotal role in the history of world ceramics. The Yuan dynasty also marked the flowering of Chinese drama. Yuan zaju, standing alongside Tang shi-poetry and Song ci-verse in the literary canon, advanced the development of vernacular writing through its compelling narratives and vividly drawn characters. The present Yuan blue-and-white jar, decorated with the scene Jinxiang Ting (‘The Pavilion of Fragrant Brocade’), is a rare surviving masterpiece that brings together these two cultural achievements.

This vessel is one of ten surviving narrative jars dating to the mid-14th century of the Yuan dynasty. The main decoration on this group of ten jars was used to depict now-famous narrative scenes from Yuan zaju drama, including ‘Wang Zhaojun Departs for the Frontier’, ‘Three Visits to the Thatched Cottage’, ‘The Romance of the Western Chamber’, and ‘Guiguzi Descending the Mountain’. The narrative scene on the current jar may be identified by the characters ‘Jinxiang Ting ’ (Pavilion of Fragrant Brocades). This was a story known to many in the 14th century through performances of zaju drama, telling the tale of Scholar Chen and Meng Yuemei, who fall in love at first sight when Chen was visiting the Meng family garden. However, Yuemei’s father demands that they can only marry after Chen gets his jinshi degree. Chen succeeds in getting his degree, but unfortunately falls foul of the wicked General An Lushan, and is sent to a post far away. Yuemei’s father also incurs the wrath of the General and is forcibly embroiled in the Rebellion. After so many tragedies, Yuemei and Scholar Chen finally meet again and marry each other. This tender romance, immortalised with exquisite brushwork upon the blue‑and‑white jar, remains as enchanting today as it was centuries ago.

Song Dynasty (960-1279) ceramics are considered the pinnacle of Chinese pottery. One of the earliest and rarest pieces in the sale is the magnificent Song dynasty Cizhou jar with striking sgraffito decoration of individual peony sprays. The very difficult technique used to produce the striking design on this vase was developed at the Cizhou kilns in the Northern Song dynasty. It involved the application of a pale slip to the unfired stoneware vessel, followed by a dark slip. The outline of the decoration was then incised through the dark top layer and the background area of the design was cut away to reveal the pale slip beneath. Details, such as leaf veins, were also incised through the dark upper layer either with a fine point or a comb-like instrument. The thin colourless glaze could then be applied and the vessel fired. This technique required a very skilful application, since the slip layers were both relatively soft and the decorator had to judge exactly how deep to cut in order to remove the dark slip layer without accidentally cutting away the lower pale layer.

Among the important Ming dynasty porcelains in the current sale is a remarkable underglaze copper-red decorated ‘camellia, prunus and bamboo’ kendi, dating to the Hongwu reign (1368-98). The name ‘kendi’ comes from the ancient Sanskrit name for water vessel. This vessel, on which the copper red has fired to a pleasing raspberry tone, was exhibited at the Tokyo National Museum as early as 1963, and was included in the catalogue Chinese Arts of the Ming and Ch’ing Periods.

Regarded as one of the pinnacles of Chinese ceramic artistry, famille rose porcelain stands as a defining achievement of the Qing dynasty. First developed in the late Kangxi period and brought to full refinement under the Yongzheng and Qianlong emperors, this overglaze palette distinguished itself from earlier wucai wares through its soft, tender tones. Employing the distinctive ‘opaque white’ enamel—as a foundation for colour modulation, craftsmen were able to achieve a delicate, luminous effect, capturing subtle shifts in shading and tone. Among the highlights of the present sale is an extremely fine famille rose ‘peach’ bowl. The painting on the bowl is so skilful that the artist has managed to make the peaches appear as luscious; fully ripened fruit, hanging heavy on the bough. Their skin is carefully depicted using enamels that have been blown onto the surface of the glaze, as well as those that have been painted, in order to produce the correct softness of texture, and effective shading. The design has been particularly skilfully applied over both the outer and inner surfaces of the bowl—starting at the exterior foot and extending over the rim into the interior of the vessel. This design concept was known as guozhihua (flowering branch passing over the rim) or guoqiangzhi (branch passing over the wall). The challenging composition has been beautifully conceived and brilliantly executed on the current bowl. The composition of peaches and bats is very auspicious. The peaches symbolise extended long life through their association with Shoulao, the Star God of the Longevity, and through association with the peaches of longevity grown in the orchard of the Queen Mother of the West. The bats provide rebuses both for good fortune and for the Five Blessings of longevity, health, and love of virtue.

From imperial scholars’ objects to rare and important masterpieces of Chinese ceramics, the Ai Lian Tang collection reflects the collector’s profound and evolving engagement with the aesthetic, technical, and cultural achievements of Chinese art. Spanning over eight centuries of ceramic achievement, the discerning vision of the collector has shaped the enduring excellence of the Ai Lian Tang collection. On 30 April 2026, Christie’s Hong Kong is once again paying tribute to the extraordinary history and timeless beauty of Chinese ceramics.