Page 42 - Chinese Art Bonhams San Francisco December 18, 2017

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A RARE MASSIVE BLUE AND WHITE STORAGE JAR This jar appears to be the tallest of a group of large storage jars
Le dynasty, 15th/16th century published in various public and private collections. For a discussion
Thickly potted and painted in dark cobalt underglaze with decorative of the group, dated variously from the 15th to 16th centuries, and
bands that include peony flowers in profile on leafy tendrils around ranging in size from 36.7 to 66 cm, see Kerry Nguyen-Long, ‘An
the neck and elaborately petaled peonies on leafy stalks around the Indonesian Collection: Vietnam’s Painted Ceramics,’ Arts of Asia,
body set between a leaf scroll meander above and a row of dragon March-April 2004, pp. 95-102. Of interest to this lot are the two jars
heads and water spray below, the lotus petal lappets on the shoulder from the private Indonesian collection painted in a similar dark inky
enclosing vegetal and geometric diaper patterns while tall jeweled lotus blue: the taller (no. 13, height 66cm, as 16th century) with unpierced
petals rise from the foot, the shoulder also applied with four pierced animal head masks applied on the shoulder; the shorter, (no. 12,
animal heads in high relief and the outside edge of the foot striped in height 62.5cm, as 15th-early 16th century), with a band of iron brown
ferruginous wash, the well-cut foot pad and recessed base showing wash drawn around the edge of the foot. The shorter jar, in turn,
the buff unglazed fabric. shared characteristics similar to shards excavated at the Ngoi and Chu
33 1/4in (84.5cm) high Dao kiln sites. The same distinctive band of brown wash to the foot
rim, peony blossoms and pierced animal head masks applied to the
$125,000 - 200,000 shoulder appear on a jar of larger size from the Ken Baars collection,
illustrated in John Stevenson and John Guy, Vietnamese Ceramics:
Published A Separate Tradition, 1997, p. 358, no. 331 (height 73cm, as 16th
James H. Brow and Anh Hoang Brow, ‘Vietnamese Ceramics: A Ten century). For a small blue and white lamp stand with dark cobalt
Thousand Year Continuum,’ Arts of Asia, March-April 2004, p. 92, no. decoration and iron brown band along the foot, part of the Hoi An/
29. Cu La Cham shipwreck and matching wasters found at the Ngoi site,
see Nancy Tingley, Arts of Ancient Vietnam: From River Plain to Open
Sea, New York and Houston, 2009, pp. 288-289, no. 86c (as late 15th
century).

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