YUAN DYNASTY, 14TH CENTURY

细节

A RARE EARLY BLUE AND WHITE BALUSTER JAR, GUAN
Yuan dynasty, 14th century
The body well painted with four registers of decoration: a band of petal lappets rising from the base separated by a border of classic scroll from a wide band of peony scroll, the leafy, undulating stem bearing six full blossoms shown from three different views, as well as a smaller blossom and a bud, the frieze above depicting two pairs of phoenix in flight amidst chrysanthemum meander separated by two monster-mask handles molded in high relief, the sides of the mouths open for the insertion of loose ring handles, below a band of lotus scroll on the sloping shoulder, the waisted neck encircled by a further band of chrysanthemum scroll set between a plain, molded border below and a narrow band of classic scroll just below the slightly lipped rim, all in an underglaze blue of soft tone darkening where the cobalt has precipitated onto the surface
15¼in. (38.7cm.) high

来源

Christie's, London, 6 December 1993, lot 75.

展览

In Pursuit of Antiquities, Thirty-fifth Anniversary Exhibition of the Min Chiu Society, Hong Kong, Hong Kong Museum of Art, 22 December 1995-18 February 1996, no. 119.
Hong Kong, The University of Hong Kong Art Gallery, November 1996- January 1997, p. 112, no. 46.

拍品专文

Guans decorated with a frieze of phoenixes around the shoulder are very rare and this particular combination of phoenixes in flight amidst chrysanthemum meander is particularly unusual.
Compare the example with phoenixes around the shoulder but below panels of bajixiang-filled lappets, illustrated by R. L. Hobson in A Catalogue of Chinese Pottery and Porcelain in the Collection of Sir Percival David, London, 1934, pl. CXIX. Another example with phoenixes amidst a lotus meander at the shoulder below panels of bajixiang and a design of waves at the neck is illustrated by R. Krahl, Chinese Ceramics from the Meiyintang Collection, vol. 2, London, 1994, pp. 22-23.
See, also, the example sold in our London rooms, 10 December 1990, lot 163, which belongs to the group of taller guans with handles modeled as 'dragon-carp', decorated with phoenixes amidst a lotus meander at the shoulder and a peony band around the body but separated by panels of bajixiang.
For an example with ruyi-shaped panels containing the phoenixes between bands of lotus and peony meander, see M. Medley, Yuan Porcelain and Stoneware, London, 1974, fig. 45B, where the guan shares its unusually pronounced handles with the present example.