Page 58 - Christie's Fine Chinese Paintings March 19 2019 Auction

Although copper oxide was frst used to produce red on high-fred ceramics
in the Tang dynasty, its use was limited to a few stoneware pieces with a
monochrome copper red-glaze and a larger number of vessels with designs
in copper red. This limited use of copper-red decoration continued into
the Song dynasty when the frst examples of copper-red glazed porcelain
appeared. Due to the dificulty of working with copper oxide its use
continued to be limited until the Yuan dynasty when there was a concerted
efort to master the material. It was during this period that the potters of
Jingdezhen experimented with several diferent techniques in the application
of copper red - splashes, reserved decoration and painted decoration. On
vessels with reserved decoration, the design was incised into the body of the
vessel and the copper red applied as a band that avoided the design. Two of
the more successful examples of this type of decoration are the two Yuan-
dynasty yuhuchunping illustrated in The Complete Collection of Treasures of
the Palace Museum - 34 - Blue and White Porcelain with Underglazed Red,
Hong Kong, 2000, pp. 206-207, pls. 191 and 192. Too often, the copper red,
due to its fuidity, bled into the design, and eventually the method of painted
decoration is the one that came to predominate during the early Ming
dynasty.
It was during the Hongwu period (1368-1398) of the early Ming dynasty,
that the potters at Jingdezhen were able to more successfully control the
fuidity of the copper red, resulting in more reliable results in its application
and fring. It was also during this period that the decoration in copper red
mirrored that executed in cobalt, or underglaze blue, as did the shapes of
the vessels. The shape of the yuhuchunping with its pear-shaped body that
tapers to the narrow neck that rises to a fared mouth informed the manner
of decoration - a wide band of decoration on the body between narrow
decorative bands below and on the neck above. On both the underglaze
blue and copper-red-decorated vases of this shape, the decoration most
often consists of a wide band of fower scroll above a band of petal lappets,
and narrow bands of trefoils (cloud collar), classic scroll and key fret below
upright plantain leaves on the neck. Examples are also known with ‘The
Three Friends of Winter’ forming the main band, as seen on two copper-red-
decorated yuhuchunping illustrated ibid., pp. 214-16, pls. 199 and 200.
Of the fower scroll-decorated yuhuchunping, the fowers represented
are usually peony, lotus or chrysanthemum. It is the frst of these fower
scrolls that decorate the present vase, as well as two copper-red-decorated
examples, also illustrated ibid., pp. 212 and 213, pls. 197-98. Four other
vases of this shape, similarly decorated in copper red with peony scroll are
illustrated in Mayuyama, Seventy Years, vol. 1, Tokyo, 1976, p. 241, pls. 721-724.
All of these have a cloud collar formed by small joined trefoils pendent from
the decorative bands at the base of the neck. The cloud collar on the present
vase is a very rare variant, as it is larger and composed of large trefoils
alternating with smaller trefoils, all flled with hatched lines radiating from
a central rib. This rare variant of cloud collar can be seen on two ewers of
Hongwu date, one decorated in copper-red with chrysanthemum scroll, in
the Victoria and Albert Museum, illustrated by Soame Jenyns in Ming Pottery
and Porcelain, London, 1953, and another in blue and white with peony scroll
illustrated in Chinese Ceramics in the Idemitsu Museum, Tokyo, 1987,
col. pl. 151.

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