Page 36 - Chinese Art Bonhams San Francisco December 18, 2017

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Seventeen years ago last month, the Asian Art group at Butterfield A WHITE GLAZED EWER AND LID WITH UNDERGLAZE IRON
and Butterfield was proud to present Treasures from the Hoian DECORATION
Hoard, Important Vietnamese Ceramics from a late 15th/early 16th Tran dynasty, 13th/14th century
The ewer of ovoid form with a wide cup-shaped mouth and waisted
century Cargo – a superb archaeological discovery, in these San neck, a long dragon-headed spout and elaborate leafy tendril handle
Francisco rooms. It was a great privilege to work with this 500 year applied to the shoulder painted with leafy sprigs and bands of striping
old cargo; its diverse contents were a window into the market taste of that repeat on the domed lid of curving lotus leaf form, the glaze
late 15th century Southeast Asia, conveying the freshness and vitality showing a milky white hue where pooled while the buff clay body is
of brushwork and the creative imagination of potter and craftsman. visible on the unglazed surfaces of the foot pad and shallow base, the
The massive excavation effort, commissioned by the Vietnamese mouth and lid interior.
government in cooperation with a Malaysian salvage company and 8 1/4in (21cm) height of ewer
9 5/8in (24.5cm) height with lid
Oxford MARE, both returned to Vietnam part of its cultural heritage
while enabling museums and private collectors an opportunity to US$4,000 - 6,000
acquire documented objects of rare type and decoration for their
collections.
Published
James H. Brow and Anh Hoang Brow, ‘Vietnamese Ceramics: A Ten
It is with this background and experience that we are delighted to Thousand Year Continuum,’ Arts of Asia, March-April 2004, p. 83, no.
offer selections from the Brow collection of Vietnamese ceramics. 7.
This group of lots includes vessels from the 12th to the 16th century,
including many pieces which directly relate to the Hoian cargo in For ewers of similar shape and decoration, see John Stevenson and
shape and decoration, created in the kilns in Hai Duong province, the John Guy, Vietnamese Ceramics: A Separate Tradition, 1997, p. 258,
biggest center of ceramic production in North Vietnam. no. 155; p. 259, no. 157; and p. 260, no. 158. As noted on p. 259,
the lid in the shape of a curling lotus leaf was inspired by Chinese
Longquan wares of the same period. However Phlippe Truong notes
the influence of Persian metalwork on the elaborate foliate handle and
pear form in a similar celadon glazed ewer published in The Elephant
and the Lotus: Vietnamese Ceramics in the Museum of Fine Arts,
Boston, New York, 2007, p. 128, no. 94 (as 14th/15th century).
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