Page 48 - 2020 October 8 HK Fine Classical Paintings

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PROPERTY FROM A DISTINGUISHED PRIVATE COLLECTION 明永樂 翠青釉蓋罐
AN EXCEPTIONALLY RARE JADEITE-GREEN
GLAZED JAR AND COVER 來源：
MING DYNASTY, YONGLE PERIOD 重要亞洲私人收藏
香港蘇富比2009年10月8日，編號1624
finely potted with tapered sides extending to softly rounded
shoulders and rising to a short straight neck, veiled in an
exquisite silky jadeite-green glaze thinning at the rim and
pooling around the shoulders in a sea-green tone, suffused
with a fine network of craquelure resembling silver threads
across the surface, the low flat cover similarly glazed
12 cm. 4¾ in.
PROVENANCE
An important Asian private collection.
Sotheby’s Hong Kong, 8th October 2009, lot 1624.

HK$ 10,000,000-15,000,000
US$ 1,290,000-1,940,000

A SOLITARY GEM IN JADEITE GREEN
Regina Krahl

It will be hard to find a porcelain vessel more pleasing in related jars with this kind of glaze are preserved from the
shape or more ravishing in colour than this small covered jar Qing court collection, both of very similar form, with a similar
from the imperial Yongle workshops of Jingdezhen in Jiangxi cover, but with three small lugs attached around the shoulder:
province. The smooth, bulging vessel with its softly rounded one now also in Beijing (fig. 1), is illustrated in The Complete
cover, enveloped in a luminous, glassy, blue-green glaze, has Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum: Monochrome
the gem-like quality encountered only in the Yongle period Porcelain, Hong Kong, 1999, pl. 123; the other, in the National
(1403-1424). With its superbly designed form, outstanding Palace Museum, Taipei (fig. 2) was included in the Museum’s
material and perfect execution, it is a masterpiece from a exhibition Shi yu xin: Mingdai Yongle huangdi de ciqi/Pleasingly
golden era of China’s porcelain production. No other jar of this Pure and Lustrous: Porcelains from the Yongle Reign (1403-
shape, complete with its cover, in this glaze tone appears to 1424) of the Ming Dynasty, Taipei, 2017, catalogue, pp. 82-3.
be recorded; altogether only five other pieces of this dazzling Two other jars of this latter shape have survived without
colour appear to be extant and only two have retained their a cover: one in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (fig. 3)
covers, both from the Qing court collection, today preserved in illustrated in Wu Tung, Earth Transformed: Chinese Ceramics in
the Palace Museums in Beijing and Taipei. the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Boston, 1998, pp. 112-3 and
While many porcelains of the Yongle period were created on the dust jacket; the other, with the lugs ground down, has
specifically for diplomatic missions, to be distributed as been sold at Christie’s New York, 16th/17th September 2010,
imperial gifts to foreign potentates, and are characterized by lot 1357.
larger sizes and a bolder aesthetic approach, more delicate After the Yongle period this subtle colouration, which
and sophisticated wares such as this jar, were produced at requires impeccably prepared materials and utmost control
the same time to cater to the needs of the imperial family and of the firing, was abandoned and never properly revived.
the court at large in the new palace buildings in Beijing. The The endearing shape of this jar is also extremely rare, but is
present jar was probably designed to hold chess pieces. similarly seen on monochrome ‘sweet-white’ jars with incised
Its sparkling bluish-green glaze – arguably the most desirable decoration, now all lacking their covers, e.g. a piece in the
and the most prestigious green hue – is in China called cuiqing, National Palace Museum, Taiwan, included in the exhibition
‘kingfisher green’ and is used to denote any kind of bluish Mingdai chunian ciqi tezhan mulu/Catalogue of a Special
green reminiscent of the bird’s plumage. The pair to this jar, Exhibition of Early Ming Period Porcelain, Taipei, 1982, cat. no.
but lacking its cover, is in the collection of the Palace Museum, 55, where it is illustrated with a non-matching cover.
Beijing, published on the Museum’s website (http://www.
dpm.org.cn/collection/ceramic/227414.html). Two closely

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