Page 131 - Christie's Asia Week March 2024 Chinese Art

重要中४藝術暨高曼珍藏

It is very rare to find a Jiajing mark and period jar of this impressive current jar - aubergine, turquoise, green, yellow and black. Their bands
large size and quality, with such well-preserved enamels. A Jiajing around the foot are similarly arranged and colored, and the plantain
jar of similar size and shape and with the same decorative scheme bands and roundels are also very similar, although they use the colors in
as the current jar in the Shanghai Museum is illustrated in Shanghai different areas of the design. In choice of palette, disposition of colors
Museum, Tokyo, 1993, p. 202, no. 122. (Fig. 1) Another similar jar and use of certain motifs the current jar is very close to the magnificent
formerly in the Qing court collection and now in the collection of the Wanli mark and period jar sold in our Hong Kong rooms on 26 April
Palace Museum, Beijing is illustrated in The Complete Collection of 2004, lot 1000. This jar shares with the current vessel similar aubergine
Treasures of the Palace Museum - 38 - Porcelains in Polychrome and ground and identical wave and plantain bands around the foot. The only
Contrasting Colours, Hong Kong, 1999, p. 7, no. 6. A slightly smaller difference being that the dividing line between these bands is aubergine
Jiajing jar of the same shape and with similar design in the collection on the current jar and yellow on the Hong Kong jar. The coloration of
of the Musèe Guimet in Paris is illustrated by D. Lion-Goldschmidt, the dragons is also the same on the two vessels. The closeness of the
Ming Porcelain, London, 1978, p. 170, no. 149. The Guimet jar also current jar to these Wanli vessels may suggest that it was produced
has a white ground and the decoration in green, yellow, turquoise towards the end of the Jiajing reign.
and red. The only notable difference in the design scheme is that the
band of waves around the base of the Guimet jar is slightly narrower The palette combining aubergine, turquoise, green, yellow and black
than on the current vessel. Another jar of this shape and design in the used on these vessels appears on porcelains from the Jingdezhen
collection of the British Museum, see J. Harrison-Hall, Ming Ceramics imperial kilns as early as the Chenghua reign. The famous example
in the British Museum, London, 2001, pp. 265-6, no. 9:116. A further of this is the excavated late Chenghua duck censer exhibited in
similar, white-ground, example in the Baur Collection is illustrated by Hong Kong and illustrated and discussed in A Legacy of Chenghua -
J. Ayers, Chinese Ceramics in the Baur Collection, Geneva, 1999, no. Imperial Porcelain of the Chenghua Reign Excavated from Zhushan,
89. A Jiajing jar of similar size and decoration, but with an aubergine Jingdezhen, Tsui Museum of Art, Hong Kong, 1993, pp. 156-7, no. C34.
ground, from the Saint Louis Art Museum, was sold at Christie’s The combination of aubergine turquoise, yellow and green had, of
New York, 30 March 2005, lot 344. (Fig. 2) This jar is now in the course, been seen on architectural ceramics since at least Jin times,
Songzhutang Collection, illustrated in Encompassing Precious Beauty: and on fahua-type vessels made at the tilework kilns since at least the
The Songzhutang Collection of Imperial Chinese Ceramics, Hong Yuan. While the fahua technique appeared at the Jingdezhen kilns in
Kong, 2016, pp. 38-9, no. 9. the Xuande reign, the traditional fahua palette including aubergine
and turquoise does not seem to have been used with this technique at
There is a variant of these white-ground Jiajing jars, which is of similar Jingdezhen until the very end of the 15th century. A rare 16th century
form, size and design, but which utilize a different palette, and which kinrande ewer, of a shape usually attributed to the Jiajing reign, is in
are inscribed with Wanli marks on a yellow-glazed base. Both the the collection of the Egawa Museum of Art, Hyogo, and illustrated in
Museum of Oriental Ceramics, Osaka, see Masterpieces of Oriental Special Exhibition - Chinese Ceramics, Tokyo National Museum, 1994,
Ceramics, Museum of Oriental Ceramics, Osaka, 1994, p. 75, no. 51, p. 196, no. 280. This shares with the current jar both the use of colored
and the Shanghai Museum, see Ancient Chinese Ceramic Gallery, grounds, and the employment of turquoise, aubergine and yellow. The
Shanghai, 1996, no. 67, have examples of the Wanli type. These Wanli panel on the side of this ewer shows a yellow dragon on an aubergine
jars are of particular interest in that they employ the same palette as the ground above turquoise waves.

Fig. 1 A wucai jar, Jiajing six-character mark and of the period, Shanghai Museum. Fig. 2 A polychrome-glazed lobed jar, Jiajing six-character mark and of the period,
圖ˏ ̩彩團龍紋ૐ，明嘉靖，˖海博ḵ館 sold at Christie’s New York, 30 March 2005, lot 344.
圖̣ 團龍蓮瓣紋➬，明嘉靖，ωૈ得紐☼， 年 月 日，拍品編號 129