Page 31 - Ming Porcelain Auction March 14, 2017 Sotheby's, NYC

⚛ 1 1977 Meiping such as the present one are known with various subtle, incised
25 11 designs, most of which are also known from contemporary versions painted
in underglaze cobalt blue. The lush peony pattern of the present piece, with
1999 99 small lotus sprays in a cloud collar around the shoulder and a orid classic
scroll at the base, is extremely rare. White jars of this shape are better known
25 2007 with a variety of lotus designs, generally of smaller size. Compare a piece in the
10 National Palace Museum, Taipei, illustrated in Minji meihin zuroku [Illustrated
catalogue of important Ming porcelains], vol. 1, Tokyo, 1977, pl. 25, together with
John Alexander Pope Chinese the blue-and-white counterpart, pl. 11; another in the Palace Museum, Beijing,
published in The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum.
Porcelains from the Ardebil Shrine Monochrome Porcelain, Hong Kong, 1999, pl. 99; one in the National Museum
of China, Beijing, is illustrated in Zhongguo Guojia Bowuguan guancang wenwu
1956 1981 yanjiu congshu/Studies on the Collections of the National Museum of China. Ciqi
juan: Mingdai [Porcelain section: Ming dynasty], Shanghai, 2007, pl. 25, with a
29 719 722 115 blue-and-white version, pl. 10.

51 Four such meiping with lotus design were preserved in the Ardabil Shrine in
Iran, see John Alexander Pope, Chinese Porcelains from the Ardabil Shrine,
Chinese Ceramics Washington, D.C., 1956 (rev. ed. London, 1981), cat. nos 29.719-722, one of them
illustrated pl. 115, together with its blue-and-white counterpart, pl. 51; and one
in the Topkapi Saray Museum Istanbul in Topkapi Saray in Turkey, see Regina Krahl, Chinese Ceramics in the Topkapi
Saray Museum, Istanbul, ed. John Ayers, London, 1986, vol. 2, cat. no. 636, with a
John Ayers 1986 2 related blue-and-white design, cat. no. 623.

636 623 Yongle ‘sweet-white’ meiping with lotus designs were sold in our Hong Kong
rooms, 5th November 1997, lot 1368; and in our London rooms, 17th December
1997 11 5 1368 71 1996, lot 71; and 13th November 2002, lot 104, the latter again at Christie’s Hong
1996 12 17 13 Kong, 29th May 2007, lot 1481; a larger one of slightly di erent proportions was
29 sold at Christie’s Hong Kong, 31st October 1994, lot 561.
104 2002 11
1481 2007 5

561 1994 10 31