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Lot Essay
This Ming dynasty pierced blue and white stand is very rare, especially in retaining its upper section. The origins of this type of pierced stand can be seen in a much simpler qingbai lampstand with balustraded top excavated in Zhangshu city from a tomb dated AD 1160 (see Dated Qingbai Wares of the Song and Yuan Dynasties, Ching Leng Foundation, Hong Kong, 1998, p. 61, no. 47. From the Yuan dynasty there are extant blue and white stands such as those excavated in 1974 at Boyang in Jiangxi province (see Yuan and Ming Blue and White Ware from Jiangxi, Jiangxi Provincial Museum and the Art Museum, Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2002, nos. 10a and 10b), but these have simple cut out legs without the leaf panels of the current piece. A small number of middle Ming pierced vessels on pierced stands are known from the Longquan kilns such as that illustrated by J. Harrison-Hall, Ming Ceramics in the British Museum, British Museum Publications, London, 2001, no. 16:34. Interestingly another Longquan stand illustrated in the same publication (no. 16:85) shares the feature of leaf-shaped panels between the vertical struts seen on the current blue and white piece.
Very few blue and white porcelains with pierced work from the Zhengde reign are known. The lower part of a slightly simpler stand dated to the late 15th century and with similar leaf-shaped panels was sold by Sotheby's London on 13 December 1988, lot 164.
Very few blue and white porcelains with pierced work from the Zhengde reign are known. The lower part of a slightly simpler stand dated to the late 15th century and with similar leaf-shaped panels was sold by Sotheby's London on 13 December 1988, lot 164.