Lot Essay
A Xuande-marked flask of nearly identical dimensions from the National Palace Museum, Taipei, is illustrated in Blue-and-White Ware of the Ming Dynasty, Book II (Part 1), pls.10-10c; see also Mayuyama Seventy Years, Vol.I, no.780; a flask of slightly smaller size and nearly identical decoration with a reign mark on the same side in the Percival David Collection (no.600), illustrated by R. Scott, Elegant Form and Harmonious Decoration, pl.41, p.51; also a similar example from the Edward T. Chow Collection, illustrated in Part Three, Ming and Qing Porcelain and Works of Art, no.408, p.22, where it is suggested that these flasks are comparable in shape to a 13th century Persian-Mesopotamian enamelled glass flask illustrated in G. Migeon, Manual d'Art Musulman, vol.II, fig.303, and in Gray, The Influence of Near Eastern Metalwork on Chinese Ceramics, T.O.C.S., 1940-41, vol.18, p.57, and 7F, where he illustrates a flask from the Hay Collection.
A flask of similar size and pattern was included in the Philadelphia Exhibition of Ming Blue and White, 1949, no.32; and one with an additional leaf spray on the upper bulb in the Topkapi Saray Museum, Istanbul, is illustrated in the revised Sekai Toji Zenshu, vol.14, pl.145. For slightly smaller flasks of the same pattern see the Exhibition of Chinese Art, Venice, 1954, no.627; and for three more examples see Mayuyama, Seventy Years, p.247, pls.743, 744 and 746.
Margret Medley in her catalogue entry for the Percival David example (col. pl. 30, Oriental Ceramics, The Percival David Foundation of Chinese Art, London), notes that several flasks like this are in the Ardible Shrine collection and that the Chinese decorator has used, as the main decorative motif, one familar in Egypt, Syria and Anatolia in the late 13th Century in architectural decoration, mosaic tilework and metalwork. The prototype for this shape is either metal or unglazed earthenware.
Similar flasks have ben sold in our Rooms in Tokyo, February 1980, lot 782, and in our Rooms in Hong Kong, January 1989, lot 566, from the Collection of the late Mr. and Mrs. R.H.R. Palmer
A flask of similar size and pattern was included in the Philadelphia Exhibition of Ming Blue and White, 1949, no.32; and one with an additional leaf spray on the upper bulb in the Topkapi Saray Museum, Istanbul, is illustrated in the revised Sekai Toji Zenshu, vol.14, pl.145. For slightly smaller flasks of the same pattern see the Exhibition of Chinese Art, Venice, 1954, no.627; and for three more examples see Mayuyama, Seventy Years, p.247, pls.743, 744 and 746.
Margret Medley in her catalogue entry for the Percival David example (col. pl. 30, Oriental Ceramics, The Percival David Foundation of Chinese Art, London), notes that several flasks like this are in the Ardible Shrine collection and that the Chinese decorator has used, as the main decorative motif, one familar in Egypt, Syria and Anatolia in the late 13th Century in architectural decoration, mosaic tilework and metalwork. The prototype for this shape is either metal or unglazed earthenware.
Similar flasks have ben sold in our Rooms in Tokyo, February 1980, lot 782, and in our Rooms in Hong Kong, January 1989, lot 566, from the Collection of the late Mr. and Mrs. R.H.R. Palmer