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    Sale 2165

    The Imperial Sale

    Hong Kong

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    26 April 2004

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    • A RARE FINELY PAINTED BLUE AND
    Lot 1021

    A RARE FINELY PAINTED BLUE AND WHITE PEONY JAR, GUAN

    Price realised

    HKD 21,903,750

    Estimate

    HKD 5,800,000 - HKD 6,500,000

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    A RARE FINELY PAINTED BLUE AND WHITE PEONY JAR, GUAN
    YUAN DYNASTY (1279-1368)

    The elegant body of ovoid form with sloping shoulders below a short straight neck and dish-shaped mouth, painted in vivid saturated ink blue tones of cobalt to the mid section with an arched peony scroll comprising six flower-heads, alternately shown full-faced and upright below twenty pendent lotus panels enclosing mixed emblems alternating with flaming pearls and floral sprays, the slightly raised shoulder with a phoenix in flight to one side and a qilin to the other, reserved on a dense lotus scroll ground divided by raised carp-form handles, below the neck with a raised rib decorated with broad border of finely pencilled cresting waves, the rim with a diaper border, the foot encircled by ten upright lotus panels enclosing trefoil lappets and pendent pomegranates (handles and portion of the rim repaired)
    19 7/8 in. (50.5 cm.) high, box

    Provenance

    H.S. Nilsen, sold Sotheby's London, 2 December 1974, lot 262.

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    Lot Essay

    A small group of these important large jars with slight decorative variations are published. The comparable jar to the present example is in The British Museum, London, illustrated in Oriental Ceramics, The World's Great Collections, Kodansha Series, Tokyo, 1981, vol. 5, pl. 26, and illustrated again in Yuandai Ciqi, Yuan Dynasty Ceramics, Beijing, 1998, p. 52, fig. 56. The British Museum jar is of 47.5 cm. high and has a metal bound mouth rim; and the only subtle difference is the appearance of two pairs of phoenix and qilin on the tapered shoulder rather than a single pair as with the present lot. Aside from this, the major decorative motifs are very similar in their characteristic bold and dense painting style.

    Another related jar also with pairs of phoenix and qilin decorating the shoulder but with a floral band below the mouth rim is in the Matsuoka Museum of Art, illustrated in Selected Masterpieces of Oriental Ceramics, 1984, pl. 42; and illustrated again, op. cit., Beijing, 1998, fig. 57. The Matsuoka Museum jar is identical to another Yuan jar also in the British Museum collection with missing handles, illustrated by B. Gray, 'The Export of Chinese Porcelain to India', T.O.C.S., vol. 36, 1964-1966, pl. 23a; where the author draws attention to a further example in the Wat Mahathat Temple, Lamphun, Thailand, illustrated, op. cit., pl. 23b.

    Compare with a vase sold in our London Rooms, 10 December 1990, lot 163 with a pair of phoenix, each divided by a pair of handles. Compare also to two vases where the borders on the shoulder are reversed, the first illustrated by J. Pope, Chinese Porcelains from the Ardebil Shrine, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, 1956, pl. 29.522, with a qilin amidst lotus scrolls below an enriched lotus lappet border; and another offered in our New York Rooms, 23 March 1995, lot 350, with phoenix replacing the qilin.

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