Page 30 - Chinese Works of Art Chritie's Mar. 22-23 2018

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A VERY RARE BLUE AND WHITE ‘PEACOCK’ JAR, GUAN The small size of this jar as well as the manner in which it is decorated are
YUAN DYNASTY (1279-1368) unusual for Yuan blue and white jars of this type, which have lion-mask
handles below a canted shoulder and a short neck below a galleried rim.
The heavily potted, tapering body is decorated on one side with a peacock
Usually, the decoration is organized in two bands on the body, such as the
with spread wings and extended tail and legs and on the reverse with a
example in the Cleveland Museum of Art, illustrated by M. Medley, Yuan
peahen shown descending, the two above bamboo and between fowering
Porcelain and Stoneware, London, 1974, pl. 45B; one illustrated in Mayuyama,
and budding tree peonies that grow from rocks positioned below each of the
Seventy Years, vol. 1, Tokyo, 1976, p. 231, pl. 694; and one in the Topkapi
molded animal-mask handles. All between a band of petal lappets below and
Saray Museum, Istanbul, illustrated in Sekai toji zenshu, vol. 13, Tokyo, 1981,
a band of peony scroll on the sloping shoulder. The neck is encircled by a band
p. 209, pl. 195. On these jars the lower band is usually flled with leafy fower
of classic scroll and fares towards the galleried rim decorated with diaper
scroll, but the upper band is variously decorated: fower scroll on the Topkapi
pattern.
Saray jar, phoenixes on the Mayuyama jar, or phoenix and fower-flled
9 in. (23 cm. ) high
pendent ruyi lappets on the Cleveland jar. On the present jar, the body has
a single wide band of decoration above the lower petal lappet band, and no
$120,000-180,000
second band below the shoulder where the handles are located.
The decoration of peacocks on this jar is also unusual, although peacocks are
PROVENANCE
Private collection, Japan. seen on other blue and white vessels of Yuan date, such as the jar of more
David Lin & Co., Taipei. classic guan shape in the British Museum illustrated by Medley, ibid., pl. 44A
and again by J. Harrison-Hall in Catalogue of Late Yuan and Ming Ceramics
EXHIBITED in the British Museum, London, 2001, p. 76, no. 1:33; and a fask with fat
Taipei, David Lin & Co., Yuan and Ming Blue and White Porcelain, sides and double loop handles on the arched shoulder in the Archaeological
20-26 October, 2000, no.1. Museum, Teheran, illustrated, ibid., Sekai toji zenshu, vol. 13, p. 209, pl. 197.
元 青花孔雀紋罐

(another view)

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