AN IMPORTANT 14TH CENTURY BLUE AND WHITE SLIP-DECORATED STEMCUP

细节

AN IMPORTANT 14TH CENTURY BLUE AND WHITE SLIP-DECORATED STEMCUP
LATE YUAN DYNASTY/HONGWU

The cup flaring out sharply to an everted rim, resting on a spreading stem with five horizontal ribbed sections, painted on the exterior with a striding three-clawed dragon chasing a flaming pearl, the interior painted with a sketchy classic scroll on the rim and a simple chrysanthemum spray at the centre, and also finely decorated in applied slip with two four-clawed dragons in mutual pursuit of flaming pearls amongst cloud and fire scrolls, foot base with two original chips made in the biscuit prior to firing
4 1/2 in. (11.4 cm.) diam., box

来源

Yamanaka, purchased in January 1940.
The Collection of Mr. and Mrs. R.H.R Palmer, no. 539, sold in these Rooms, 17 January 1989, lot 561.

出版

Garner, Sir Harry, Oriental Blue and White, pl. 2A.
E.E. Bluett, 'Chinese Works of Art in English Collections: The Collection of Mr. and Mrs. R.H.R. Palmer-I', Apollo, April 1958, p. 160, fig. VIII9(c).
The Tsui Museum of Art, 1991, pl. 57.

展览

Selected Treasures of Chinese Art, Min Chiu Society Thirtieth Anniversary Exhibition, Hong Kong, 1990/1991, Catalogue, pl. 121.

拍品专文

A similar stemcup from the Junkunc Collection was sold in these Rooms, 25 October 1993; another from the collection of Mrs. Otto Harriman was exhibited at the Oriental Ceramic Society, London, 'The Ceramic Art of China', 1971, Catalogue, no. 136, pl. 90 and at the Exhibition of Chinese Art in Venice, 1954, Catalogue, no. 602; a third from the British Museum, London, is illustrated by Joseph in Ming Porcelains, Their Origin and Development, p. 12, fig. 1, where two closely related cups are also illustrated, nos. 1-2.

Two other related examples with flower medallions were included in the exhibition of Blue-Decorated Porcelain of the Ming Dynasty at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, 1949, Catalogue, nos. 4 and 8. Nos. 5-7 in the same exhibition have the three-clawed dragon around the exterior, but the slip designs within are different. No. 6 was subsequently sold from the Fuller Collection in our London Rooms, 28 June 1965, lot 149.

There has been much discussion as to the correct dating of these wares. Excavations around the precincts of the Hongwu Palace in Nanjing in 1970 uncovered a whole group of related porcelains, including stembowls from the tomb of Wang Xingzu, dated 1371, illustrated by Wang Qingzheng in Underglaze Blue and Red, pl. 31. However, as Addis notes in Chinese Ceramics from Datable Tombs, the tomb also contained three Southern Song Guanyao pieces demonstrating that 'heirloom' pieces were part of the burial.

(US$160,000-240,000)