Page 264 - Christies King St. FINE CHINESE CERAMICS AND WORKS OF ART

PROPERTY FROM A PRIVATE FRENCH
COLLECTION

313

AN IMPORTANT, VERY RARE AND LARGE
EARLY MING COPPER-RED-DECORATED
JAR, GUAN
HONGWU PERIOD (1368-1398)

明洪武 釉裡紅串枝花卉紋瓜棱大罐

The jar is powerfully potted with tapered sides,
supported on a thick foot rim with a recessed base. The
body of the vessel is formed of twelve lobed segments,
each painted with leafy foral sprays including day
lily, lotus, pomegranate, tree peony, chysanthemum,
camellia, herbaceous peony, hibiscus, rose and lotus
blooms, below further lotus blooms and cloud scrolls
encircling the shoulder and neck. The base is similarly
painted with lotus sprays, above a band of classic scroll
and below a key-fret border and a band of lappets.

201 in. (51 cm.) high

£30,000-50,000 $46,000-76,000
€41,000-68,000

PROVENANCE:

From a private French collection, acquired by the
present owner’s grandparents in China prior to 1929,
and thence by descent within the family.

Several examples with this design, decorated in
copper red or in cobalt blue, are known in both
public and private collections. Compare the present
lot to three jars decorated in copper red: one in the
Umezawa Kinekan Museum, Tokyo, illustrated in
Sekai Toji Zenshu, Tokyo, 1955, vol. 13, p. fg. 85; one in
the Shanghai Museum, illustrated in Underglaze Blue
and Red, Shanghai, 1987, fg. 34; the last in the British
Museum illustrated by Soame Jenyns, Ming Pottery
and Porcelain, London, 1953, pl. 18.

Other published examples include one in the
Matsuoka Museum of Art, illustrated in Selected
Masterpieces of Oriental Ceramics, Japan, 1983, pl.
44; another in the Baur Collection, illustrated by J.
Ayers, Chinese Ceramics in the Baur Collection, vol.
1, Geneva, 1999, pl. 59; and the jar sold at Christie’s
Hong Kong, The Imperial Sale, 26 April 1999, lot 551.

來源：法國私人珍藏；由現藏家祖父母
於1929年前購自中國，家族珍藏至今

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