THE PROPERTY OF A GENTLEMAN 
A MING-STYLE BLUE AND WHITE EWER, ZHIHU

Details
A MING-STYLE BLUE AND WHITE EWER, ZHIHU
DAOGUANG SIX-CHARACTER SEAL MARK AND OF THE PERIOD

The pear-shaped ewer has a curved spout painted with tightly scrolling foliage and joined to the neck with a cloud-shaped strut opposite a looped handle decorated with lingzhi, painted on either side with quatrefoil panels enclosing fruiting and flowering peach and loquat branches, flanked by leafy peony and chrysanthemum sprays above a band of upright lappets around the foot, classic scrolls on the short foot, the shoulder with stylised peony-scrolls, the neck with a band of overlapping plantain leaves, all painted in a slightly pale cobalt-blue tone (crack to strut)
10 1/4 in. (26 cm.) high, box

Lot Essay

Previously sold in Hong Kong, 29 November 1978, lot 246.

Similar ewers have been recorded, one included in the Inaugural Exhibition, Selected Masterpieces of the Matsuoka Museum of Art, Tokyo, 1975, no. 104; and another sold in our Singapore Rooms, The Yangzhitang Collection, 30 March 1997, lot 202.

It is likely that these later Daoguang-period ewers were copied from the Qianlong version, which in turn was produced as a revival of the early Ming originals. For the Ming prototype of this exact design, see R. Krahl, Chinese Ceramics in the Topkapi Saray Museum, Istanbul, 1986, vol. II, no. 618. For the Qianlong version, examples may be found in the Tsui Museum of Art, illustrated Chinese Ceramics IV, Qing Dynasty, no. 78; the S.C. Ko Tianminlou Collection, illustrated in the Catalogue, vol. I, col. pl. 59; and included in the exhibition The Wonders of the Potter's Palette, Catalogue no. 64.

(US$12,000-15,000)

More from IMPORTANT CHINESE CERAMICS AND WORKS OF ART

View All
View All