Page 29 - Six treasures of IMpeerial Art Sothebys Hong Kong April 3 2019

Fig. 3 Fig. 4
Blue and white Arabic-inscribed stand, wudangzun, Ming dynasty, Blue and white sherds excavated from the imperial kiln site in Zhushan,
Yongle period mark and period of Xuande
Qing court collection Courtesy of Jingdezhen Ceramics Archaeology Institute
© Collection of Palace Museum, Beijing 圖四
圖三 明宣德 景德鎮珠山出土之青花無當尊殘片 《大明宣德□□》款
明永樂 青花阿拉伯文無當尊 清宮舊藏 圖片鳴謝：景德鎮陶瓷研究所
© 北京故宮博物院藏品

collection, is illustrated in Geng Baochang, ed., Gugong first published in John Carswell, ‘An Early Ming Porcelain
Bowuyuan cang Ming chu qinghua ci [Early Ming blue-and- Stand from Damascus’, Oriental Art, New Series, vol. XII,
white porcelain in the Palace Museum], Beijing, 2002, vol. no. 3, autumn 1966, p. 176, is now in the British Museum,
1, pl. 29 (fig. 3), together with a Qianlong copy, vol. 2, pl. illustrated in Jessica Harrison-Hall, Ming Ceramics in the
212; another is kept in the Summer Palace, Beijing (Zhou British Museum, London, 2001, no. 3:22, together with a
Shangyun, ‘Yiheyuan cangci jingshang [Highlights of the Mamluk silver-inlaid brass stand of similar shape, p. 110,
ceramic collection of the Summer Palace]’, Forbidden City, fig. 1. Harrison-Hall remarks on the “very dark blue blurred
2008, vol. 5, p. 92 top). cobalt tones”, which characterise the British Museum stand
– as they do the present piece and similarly at least also
A stand in the Tianjin Municipal Museum is illustrated in the Palace Museum, Shanghai Museum and Hebei Museum
Tianjin Shi Yishu Bowuguan cang ci/Porcelains from the examples.
Tianjin Municipal Museum, Hong Kong, 1993, pl. 79, where it
is stated that copies were made in the Kangxi (1662-1722), Fragmentary pieces of this form have been discovered at
Yongzheng (1723-1735) and Qianlong reigns; an example in the waste heaps of the Ming imperial kilns at Jingdezhen in
the Shanghai Museum, is published in Lu Minghua, Shanghai Jiangxi both in the Yongle stratum, but apparently only in
Bowuguan zangpin yanjiu daxi/Studies of the Shanghai plain white, and in the Xuande stratum, in blue-and-white but
Museum Collections : A Series of Monographs. Mingdai inscribed with the imperial reign mark. No complete example
guanyao ciqi [Ming imperial porcelain], Shanghai, 2007, pl. of either of these two versions appears to be preserved;
3-23; and one that had been collected in the Xingtai region for the former see Imperial Porcelains from the Reigns of
by the Hebei Cultural Relics Shop, as recorded in Wenwu Hongwu and Yongle in the Ming Dynasty, Beijing, 2015, no.
1994, no. 1, p.73, is now apparently in the Folk Art Museum 115; for the latter Jingdezhen chutu Ming Xuande guanyao
of Hebei Province (Minjian cang zhen: Hebei Sheng Minsu ciqi/Xuande Imperial Porcelain Excavated at Jingdezhen,
Bowuguan cang ciqi jingpin [Highlights of the ceramic Chang Foundation, Taipei, 1998, p. 121, fig. F 14 (fig. 4); and
collection of the Folk Art Museum of Hebei Province], both juxtaposed in Liu Xinyuan, ‘Imperial Export Porcelain
Shijiazhuang, 2006, pp. 20-21). from Late Yuan to Early Ming’, Oriental Art, vol. XLV, no. 3,
Autumn 1999, p. 52, figs 12 a and b.
A very similar stand in the British Museum, London, acquired
by its former owner, Dr Joseph Aractingi in Damascus and