A rare blue and white 'mandarin duck' charger, Yuan dynasty | 元　青花荷塘鴛鴦圖折沿盤

Collection of Yamaguchi Hoshun (1893-1971).

Kochukyo Co., Ltd, Tokyo.

Opening Exhibition. Heritage of Beauty: Japanese, Chinese and Korean Art, Okada Museum of Art, Hakone, 2013.

5th Anniversary Exhibition. All-Stars of the Okada Collection: Masterworks of Korin, Jakuchu, Hokusai and the Ru Ware Kilns, Okada Museum of Art, Hakone, 2018-19, exh. no. 57 (unillustrated).

Yoshiaki Yabe, Toji Taikei [Complete Series of Ceramics], vol. 41: Yuan dynasty blue and white, Tokyo, 1974, pl. 47.

Kobayashi Tadashi, ed., Masterpieces of the Okada Museum of Art, vol. 1, Tokyo, 2013, no. 20.

Blue and white chargers of the Yuan dynasty (1279-1368) are among the most impressive and characteristic porcelains of that innovative period. No two dishes are identical as the craftsmen conceived each dish individually. Their onerous production process and generous use of the expensive imported cobalt pigment severely limited the number that could be produced, resulting in the potters switching to a simpler version of circular form and designs in blue on a white ground, which were better suited to serial production. Porcelains of this type were exported all over Asia and highly sought after for their durability and suitability for Middle Eastern banquets. The exoticism of their quickly sketched central nature scenes, which are unmistakeably Chinese, evoking lush Southern gardens with fantastic rocks, bamboo, lotus, peonies and other plants, would have appealed to wealthy Middle Eastern merchants keen to dazzle their audience back home. Such porcelains represent the vanguard of an overarching change of taste in tableware that embraced all of Asia, although it was to take some time before China’s elite fully embraced Jingdezhen’s blue and white colour scheme itself.

Close comparisons are illustrated in Regina Krahl, Chinese Ceramics in the Topkapi Saray Museum, Istanbul, vol. II, cat. no. 570 (TKS 15/1427 and 15/1429); in John Alexander Pope, Chinese Porcelains from the Ardebil Shrine, Washington D.C., 1956, pl. 8, nos 29.40 and 29.41; and in The Idemitsu Museum of Art 15th Anniversary Catalogue, Tokyo, 1981, cat. no. 755. A slightly larger example was sold in these rooms, 2nd May 2005, lot 638.

The present charger was formerly in the collection of Yamaguchi Hoshun (1893-1971), one of Japan’s greatest modern painters, celebrated for his distinctive style known as “Hoshun Modernism.” He depicted this charger in his final still-life work of 1971 (fig. 1).

來源

山口蓬春（1893-1971年）收藏

壺中居，東京

展覽

《日本．東洋—美の遺産展》，岡田美術館，箱根，2013年

《開館5周年記念展―美のスターたち―光琳．若冲．北斎．汝窯など名品勢ぞろい》， 岡田美術館，箱根，2018-19年，展覽編號57（沒載圖）

出版

矢部良明，《陶磁大系》，卷41：元の染付，東京，1974年，圖版47

小林忠編，《岡田美術館名品撰》，卷1，東京，2013年，編號20

元瓷鼎新，尤青花盤軼群而出，別具一格。因匠人逐件構思，故未見紋飾全然相同者。因製作耗工甚巨，且大量使用昂貴進口鈷料，致產量極為有限，遂使窰匠轉而採用更適於批量生產的白地青花圓器形制。此類瓷器廣銷亞洲，因器身堅致且契合中東宴飲習俗而備受推崇。盤心所繪寫意自然景致，奇石修竹、蓮池牡丹等典型江南園景雖具鮮明中國特質，然異域情調頗合中東豪商炫示財富之需。此類景德鎮青花瓷首開食器審美之變，影響遍及亞洲，先為中東富賈所好，用其宴饗以博賓客歎羨，後得中土顯貴青睞。

近例可參見康蕊君，《Chinese Ceramics in the Topkapi Saray Museum, Istanbul》，卷2，編號570（TKS 15/1427、15/1429）；John Alexander Pope，《Chinese Porcelains from the Ardebil Shrine》，華盛頓，1956年，圖版8，編號29.40、29.41；以及《開館15周年記念図録》，出光美術館，東京，1981年，編號755。香港蘇富比2005年5月2日也曾售出一例，較此略大，編號638。

此盤為日本著名近代畫家山口蓬春（1893-1971年）舊藏，山口氏以融合古典日本畫精神與現代感的「蓬春現代主義」風格著稱。此盤曾入畫於其昭和46年之靜物絕筆作品中（圖1）。