Coco Li
Cataloguer / Sale Coordinator, Chinese Works of Art
Lot 4W
A MASSIVE MING BLUE AND WHITE JAR Jiajing six-character mark and of the period
14 December 2023, 17:00 EST
New YorkSold for US$40,960 inc. premium
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A MASSIVE MING BLUE AND WHITE JAR
Jiajing six-character mark and of the period
The globular jar with steep sides and gently rounded shoulder below a shallow waisted neck and short flattened cylindrical neck, painted in various attractive tones of cobalt blue with a wide register of leafy scrolling lotus to the lower two-thirds of the body and set between a dark band of layered petals at the foot and pendant jewelry to the rounded shoulder including conch shells, tassels, umbrellas, wheels, lozenges and rhino horns, the interior white glazed, the foot unglazed save for a central circle which bears the vertical six-character reign mark in underglaze blue.
20 1/2in (52cm) high
The globular jar with steep sides and gently rounded shoulder below a shallow waisted neck and short flattened cylindrical neck, painted in various attractive tones of cobalt blue with a wide register of leafy scrolling lotus to the lower two-thirds of the body and set between a dark band of layered petals at the foot and pendant jewelry to the rounded shoulder including conch shells, tassels, umbrellas, wheels, lozenges and rhino horns, the interior white glazed, the foot unglazed save for a central circle which bears the vertical six-character reign mark in underglaze blue.
20 1/2in (52cm) high
Footnotes
明嘉靖 《大明嘉靖年製》双行款 青花瓔珞纏枝蓮紋大罐
Compare the very similar Jiajing-marked blue and white jar in the collection of the Shanghai Museum, illustrated by Wang Qingzheng and Fan Jirong (eds.), Selected Ceramics from the Collection of Mr. & Mrs. J. M. Hu, Shanghai, 1989, p. 55, no. 22.
Compare the massive blue and white jar of spherical form, with the same 'pendant jewels and scrolling lotus' design and with an unglazed base and a Jiajing six-character mark at the center, in the collection of the Beijing Palace Museum, illustrated in Imperial Porcelains from the Reign of Jiajing, Longqing and Wanli in the Ming Dynasty: A Comparison of Porcelain from the Imperial Kiln Site at Jingdezhen and Imperial Collection of the Palace Museum, Vol. I, Beijing, 2018, pp. 50-51, no. 10.
For a much smaller lotus jar (14 inches high), see Sotheby's London, 4 November 2009, lot 78, where the band of jewelry around the neck is contained within a thinner band at the shoulder and with smaller lotus flowerheads to the body.
Sir Harry Garner in Oriental Blue and White, London, 1954, notes, regarding media and subject matter in Jiajing marked ceramics, that the blue and white of the reign of Jiajing had always been prized for the brilliance of its blue decoration. In spite of the use of imported cobalt ('Mohammedan blue') in the earlier Ming reigns, the potters were rarely able to avoid a touch of greyness in the blue. In the reign of Jiajing the potters succeeded partly by the use of indigenous cobalt, (hui blue from Yunnan), according to the scant records available, and partly no doubt by the improved methods of purifying the cobalt ore, in getting the brilliant dark purplish blue which is regarded as typical of this period. See also He Li, Chinese Ceramics: A New Comprehensive Survey, New York, 1996, pp. 211-212.
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