Museum-quality blue-and-white porcelain from the Tianminlou Collection

The Tianminlou Collection was established in the 1970s and became respected as one of the finest private collections of Chinese porcelains in the world. Its museum-quality blue-and-white and imperial porcelain pieces from the Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties perfectly embody the history of Chinese ceramic and porcelain art, and have been widely exhibited in leading museums and institutions, including the Shanghai Museum, the Hong Kong Museum of Art and the Chang Foundation Museum.

‘We are extremely pleased to announce that 15 remarkable Yuan blue-and-white and Ming-Qing imperial porcelains from the Tianminlou Collection will be offered for auction at Christie’s,’ says Kevin Ching, Chairman of Christie’s Asia. ‘To be able to own a piece from the prestigious Tianminlou Collection would be a collector’s dream come true.’

As a longstanding friend of the collectors, Ching has been able to admire and explore this private collection for some time. Owned by a family in which both the father and son have served as chairman of the Min Chiu Society, the Tianminlou Collection is the fruit of distinguished connoisseurship and deep knowledge of Chinese ceramics.

‘The Tianminlou Collection is the world’s largest private collection of Yuan blue-and-white porcelain, only surpassed by the Topkapi Palace Museum and the Ardebil Shrine collection,’ notes Wang Qingzheng, a prominent scholar of ceramic and porcelain art and former director of the Shanghai Museum.

The relationship between the Tianminlou Collection and Christie’s stretches back to the 1980s. When Christie’s Shanghai opened its new office in 1994, the owner of the Tianminlou Collection generously loaned out his rare treasures for Christie’s inaugural exhibition in mainland China. According to Lillian Chin, Christie’s first representative in mainland China, more than 5,000 visitors queued outside the venue for a glimpse of the collection.

The Tianminlou Collection sale marks the debut at auction of major pieces, including Yuan blue-and-white porcelain — some of the most important pieces offered since the Van Hemert jar became the most expensive work of Asian art ever sold at auction in 2005. It realised more than £15 million at Christie’s in London.

‘The visionary owners of the Tianminlou Collection started collecting Yuan blue-and-white porcelain pieces in the 1980s, when it was often overlooked by others,’ says Sherese Tong, senior specialist in Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art, Asia Pacific. ‘Recognising the historical significance of these works of art, they researched and collected passionately. The Tianminlou Collection is considered a textbook collection of Chinese porcelain, renowned for its museum-quality pieces.’

The emergence of Yuan blue-and-white porcelains marked an important and influential shift in Chinese aesthetics, as merchants from Central Asia introduced imported cobalt pigments and Islamic designs to China during the Yuan dynasty. Referencing the blue-and-white meiping and charger pictured below, Tong says, ‘The colour blue is regarded as a symbol of purity and sacredness in Islamic culture. It was not used extensively on Chinese objects until the Yuan dynasty. After that, blue-and-white porcelain with bold designs became more popular.

‘Decorative motifs with Islamic influences also became commonly seen, such as the peony scroll on the meiping vase (above). Moreover, in Mongolia and Central Asia the custom was to sit around a table and share food, whereas people in China would sit on the floor holding their own plates. So the emergence of large serving plates like this grand charger (below) reflected a change in dining habits in China during the Yuan dynasty.’

Supervisors at the imperial kilns in Jingdezhen during the Yongle and Xuande reigns had a rigorous eye, and would screen out and destroy any pieces with the slightest imperfection. Their stringent standards ensured that only objects of the finest quality would be presented to the court, hence the rarity of imperial porcelain from these two periods today.

The blue-and-white ‘Grapes’ barbed-rim charger from the Yongle period below retains foreign influences distinctive to Yuan blue-and-white porcelain. The fruit, imported from Central Asia, was rarely used as a motif on Chinese ceramics until the 15th century, after which grapes became a popular design for blue-and-white porcelain. Chargers with similar motifs were used and preserved in China and palaces in Iran, India and Turkey, suggesting that these pieces not only existed in the court in the Ming dynasty, but were also presented as diplomatic gifts.

The three Yongzheng and Qianlong celadon-glazed, blue-and-white and blue-ground, gilt-decorated porcelain pieces stand out with their superior form, style and design, representing the pinnacle of ceramic and porcelain art during the Qing dynasty, and its diversity. The moonflask and basin below represent some of the remarkable imitations of the early Ming designs.

Moonflasks — vessels whose shape is reminiscent of a full moon — are a favourite of collectors. Standing 41.5 cm high, this example is a masterpiece of elegant form and grand proportions, and would have been extremely challenging to produce. The form and decorations were inspired by Yongle blue-and-white porcelain, but this moonflask also features two chilong handles on the sides, giving the classic design an intriguing twist.

Meanwhile, the basin is a refined imitation of both the form and the motifs of the imperial blue-and-white angled-brim basins from the Yongle and Xuande reigns. It is worth noting that surviving examples are mainly from the early Ming dynasty, and only a handful are from the Yongzheng period, making this lot a rare and important treasure.

Elegant blue-and-white porcelain pieces are precious witnesses of the splendid history of the Silk Road, where dynamic cultural exchanges and trade between China and West Asian countries flourished for centuries. They also showcase the singular magnificence of the Tianminlou Collection, a museum-quality private collection of unrivalled historical significance.