Page 242 - Important Chinese Art Hong Kong April 2, 2019 Sotheby's

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A CARVED LONGQUAN CELADON ‘PEONY’ 明洪武 龍泉青釉刻牡丹紋玉壺春瓶
BOTTLE VASE, YUHUCHUNPING
MING DYNASTY, HONGWU PERIOD
with an elegantly proportioned pear-shaped body resting on
a slightly splayed foot, sweeping up to a tall waisted neck
rising to a flaring rim, the body boldly carved with four large
peony sprays borne on an undulating stem also issuing
furled leaves, above a broad lotus lappet band enclosing
ruyi heads, the neck decorated with an upright lappet frieze
above key-fret and classical scroll borders, all above a key-
fret band encircling the foot, applied overall save for the
unglazed footring with an even olive-green glaze
34.5 cm, 13½ in.

HK$ 800,000-1,200,000
US$ 102,000-153,000

This vase is notable for its freely carved blooms among
lushly rendered foliage, and belongs to a rare group of
Longquan ware made for the imperial court. Vessels of this
type sourced their design from the same type of ‘pattern
books’ used at the imperial kilns in Jingdezhen, and vases
of this type often have counterparts made in underglaze
blue or red. While highly complicated motifs, as seen on this
vase, may have been more suitable for the painting brush,
the Longquan craftsmen took advantage of their carving
technique by fashioning the deeply incised lines in such a
way as to reveal a shading of darker green where the glaze
pooled. Carving further allowed for greater details, here seen
in the finely incised veins of petals.
Five similar vases in the National Palace Museum, Taipei,
were included in the Museum’s exhibition Bilü – Mingdai
Longquan yao qingci/Green – Longquan Celadon of the Ming
Dynasty, Taipei, 2009, cat. nos 51-55; and a reconstructed
vase is illustrated in Ye Yingting, and Hua Yunong, Faxian:
Da Ming Chuzhou Longquan guanyao [Discovery: Imperial
ware of the Great Ming dynasty from Longquan in Chuzhou],
Hangzhou, 2005, p. 102 and p. 110. A further vase of this
type, illustrated in Julian Thompson, ‘Chinese Celadons’,
Arts of Asia, November-December 1993, pl. 14 (left), was
sold twice in these rooms in 1976 and 1996, and again in our
New York rooms, 20th March 2018, lot 102.
Three porcelain vases painted in underglaze blue and copper
red with a similar peony scroll in the Palace Museum, Beijing,
are illustrated in The Complete Collection of Treasures in the
Palace Museum. Blue and White Porcelain with Underglazed
Red (I), Hong Kong, 2000, pls 14, 196 and 197.

240 SOTHEBY ’S IMPORTANT CHINESE ART