Page 66 - Chinese Ceramics the Linyushanren Collection Part 1 , Christie's

2812
A RARE ‘NUMBERED FOUR’ JUN BRACKET-
LOBED NARCISSUS BOWL
YUAN-MING DYNASTY, 14TH-15TH CENTURY
The sides of the bowl are evenly moulded into six petal lobes rising to an
everted, conforming lobed mouth rim, resting on three ruyi-shaped feet.
The exterior and interior are covered with a milky lavender-blue glaze
thinning to mushroom on the raised edges and some ‘worm trail’. The base
is covered with a brown wash with fine spur marks along the edges, and
incised with the numeral, si, ‘four’.
8 √ in. (22.5 cm.) wide, Japanese wood box
HK$5,000,000-7,000,000 US$650,000-910,000
元/明初 鈞窯天藍釉菱花口盆托 「四」字款
PROVENANCE
Dr. T.H. Shire (d. 1976)
Bluett & Sams, London
Bonhams London, 7 November 2005, Lot 5
EXHIBITED
Oriental Ceramics Society of London, Sung Dynasty Wares. Chun and
Brown Glazes, 1952, Catalogue, no. 41
Christie’s, The Classical Age of Chinese Ceramics: An Exhibition of Song
Treasures from the Linyushanren Collection, Hong Kong, 22 to 27 November
2012; New York, 15 to 20 March 2013; London, 10 to 14 May 2013,
Catalogue, no. 24
LITERATURE
Oriental Ceramics Society of London, Sung Dynasty Wares. Chun and
Brown Glazes, 1952, p. , fig. 41
Christie’s, The Classical Age of Chinese Ceramics: An Exhibition of Song Treasures Eumorfopoulos Collection, ‘number two’ (24.1 cm. diam.), sold at
from the Linyushanren Collection, Hong Kong, 2012, pp. 78-79, no. 24
Dr. T.H. Shire served in the Royal Navy during the Second World
War and was with the Allied forces when Hong Kong was liberated.
Subsequently he was sent to Shanghai to care for and evacuate Allied
prisoners of war, and while there he formed the basis of his collection of
Chinese porcelain, see R. David and D. Jellinek, Provenance, Collectors,
Dealers and Scholars in the Field of Chinese Ceramics in Britain and
America, 2011, p. 398.
The Classic Age of Chinese Ceramics 古韻天成 — 臨宇山人珍藏（一）
The present bowl belongs to a group of Jun vessels comprising zun-
shaped vases with prominent flanges, flower pots, and narcissus bowls,
where each vessel has been incised or stamped with a Chinese numeral
on the base. The numbers range from one to ten, and according to
the Nanyao biji (Notes of the Nanyao), composed during the Qianlong
reign, the numbers are indications for pairing flower pots with stands. In
recent years, scholars have also noted that the numbers appear to have
an indirectly proportional relationship with the sizes of the vessels, with
ten representing the smallest and one the largest. Jun narcissus bowls of
this group appear in three styles. The first has a circular mouth rim with
drum-nail bosses on the exterior such as the ‘number nine’ example
from the R.F.A. Riesco Collection, sold at Christie’s Hong Kong, 27
November 2013, lot 3102. The second style has of six-petalled lobes
such as the bowl sold at Christie’s Hong Kong, 3 June 2015, lot 3121;
and the third has moulded six bracket lobes at the flatterned rim, such
as the present example. The only other known narcissus bowl with six
bracket lobes incised with the numeral four, appears to be a moon-white
glaze bowl in the National Palace Museum, illustrated in A Panorama of
Ceramics in the Collection of the National Palace Museum: Chun Ware, Taipei,
1999, p. 114-115, no. 40, measuring 22.5 cm. diam.
There are three bowls of this bracket-lobed form, catalogued as a brush
washers, in the Qing Court Collection, illustrated in Porcelain of the
Song Dynasty (I), The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace
Museum, Hong Kong, 1996, pp. 34-36, nos. 29-31. Three further
examples are in the National Palace Museum, illustrated in Chun Ware,
A Panorama of Ceramics in the Collection of the National Palace
Museum, 1999, pp. 108-113, nos. 37-39, with rose-red glaze (number
two); azure and aubergine glaze (number three); and moon-white glaze
(number three) respectively. A ‘number three’ of rose-purple glaze
pairing with a bracket-lobed flower pot in Arthur M. Sackler Museum,
Harvard University Art Museums is illustrated by Stephan Wolohojian,
ed., Harvard Art Museum Handbook, Cambridge, 2008, p. 55. Several
other bracket-lobed bowls were sold at auction, one from the George
Christie’s London, 15 June 1998, lot 87; one from the Robert Chang
Collection, ‘number seven’ (21.1 cm. diam.), sold at Christie’s New
York, 26 March 2003, lot 227; and the other one from Edward T. Chow
Collection, ‘number nine’ (19.7 cm. diam.), sold at Sotheby’s Hong
Kong, 30 April 1996, lot 305.
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