Description
[ESTIMATE UPON REQUEST // PLEASE CONTACT US FOR MORE INFORMATION ABOUT THIS LOT] ****** A BLUE AND WHITE ‘MAGPIE AND PRUNUS’ PORCELAIN PILGRIM FLASK OR MOON FLASK, BIANHU China, Yongle style, 20th century The gourd of round shape with a flat base and two half circled handles linking the shoulder to the tubular neck. Finely painted in blue shades with a Ming style ‘heap and pile’ effect. The decoration depicts magpies amidst plum tree blossomed branches as well as. A further geometrical pattern or band of foliage scrolls underlines the foot. H: 25 cm Notes: 1. The form of this gourd is an adaptation of a much earlier foreign vessel inspired from leather bags or pilgrim bottles. This shape first appeared in Chinese ceramic production during the Han and Tang periods; 2. One can say ‘There is a happy magpie on the tip of the plum branch’, lit. “Xi Shang Mei Shao” (喜上梅稍) which soundd exactly like ‘Xi Shang Mei Shao’ (喜上眉稍) lit. ‘Happiness up to one's eyebrows’; 3. This flask dating to the 20th century would have been made after renowned related models dating to the Yongle period, such as that preserved in the Sir David Percival Foundation and now exhibited at the British Museum, London, The United Kingdom, and that preserved at the Shanghai Museum of Fine Arts, China. 4. The above-mentioned vases have been published and illustrated in the series of books ‘Porcelain of the National Palace Museum’, Cafa Company Limited, Hong Kong, 1961-1969, ‘Blue and White Ware of the Ming Dynasty Book 1’, p. 58, pl. 9 and p. 60, pl. 10.
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[ESTIMATE UPON REQUEST // PLEASE CONTACT US FOR MORE INFORMATION ABOUT THIS LOT] ****** A BLUE AND WHITE ‘MAGPIE AND PRUNUS’ PORCELAIN PILGRIM FLASK OR MOON FLASK, BIANHU China, Yongle style, 20th century The gourd of round shape with a flat base and two half circled handles linking the shoulder to the tubular neck. Finely painted in blue shades with a Ming style ‘heap and pile’ effect. The decoration depicts magpies amidst plum tree blossomed branches as well as. A further geometrical pattern or band of foliage scrolls underlines the foot. H: 25 cm Notes: 1. The form of this gourd is an adaptation of a much earlier foreign vessel inspired from leather bags or pilgrim bottles. This shape first appeared in Chinese ceramic production during the Han and Tang periods; 2. One can say ‘There is a happy magpie on the tip of the plum branch’, lit. “Xi Shang Mei Shao” (喜上梅稍) which soundd exactly like ‘Xi Shang Mei Shao’ (喜上眉稍) lit. ‘Happiness up to one's eyebrows’; 3. This flask dating to the 20th century would have been made after renowned related models dating to the Yongle period, such as that preserved in the Sir David Percival Foundation and now exhibited at the British Museum, London, The United Kingdom, and that preserved at the Shanghai Museum of Fine Arts, China. 4. The above-mentioned vases have been published and illustrated in the series of books ‘Porcelain of the National Palace Museum’, Cafa Company Limited, Hong Kong, 1961-1969, ‘Blue and White Ware of the Ming Dynasty Book 1’, p. 58, pl. 9 and p. 60, pl. 10.
