Page 99 - Christie's Fine Chinese Paintings March 19 2019 Auction

ANOTHER PROPERTY
1642
A RETICULATED FAHUA MEIPING
MING DYNASTY, 15TH-16TH CENTURY
The vase is pierced through the body, and decorated in blue, turquoise, yellow
and cream enamels with a continuous scene of scholars amidst pine trees
in the central register, lappets on the foot, and a band of peony scroll on the
shoulder.
11 in. (29.3 cm.) high
$20,000-30,000

PROVENANCE
Private collection, Europe.
The present vase is not only remarkable for its complex construction and
sophisticated decoration, but also for its attractive dark blue ground, which
is rare. One other dark blue-ground meiping, previously in the collection of
Mr. and Mrs. Isaac D. Fletcher, is now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art,
New York, no. 17.120.156. A similar vase carved in openwork with a scene
of scholars, but with a turquoise-ground, is illustrated by J. Harrison-Hall in
Ming Ceramics in the British Museum, London, 2001, pp. 413-14, no. 13:9.
Another related turquoise-ground meiping, from the collection of Mrs. Alfred
Clark and dated circa 1500, is illustrated in the catalogue to the Oriental
Ceramic Society exhibition, The Arts of the Ming Dynasty, London, 1957, no.
161. Another fahua meiping from the collection of Baron von Ledebur sold at
Christie’s London, 31 March 1969, lot 79.
(another view)
明十五/十六世紀 琺華鏤空松下高士圖梅瓶
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