An exceptional and rare blue and white 'peony' ewer, Ming dynasty, Yongle period | 明永樂　青花纏枝花卉紋執壺

A Japanese private collection.

Kochukyo Co., Ltd, Tokyo.

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. 94 (unillustrated).

Ryoichi Fujioka, Toji Taikei [Complete Series of Ceramics], vol. 42: Ming dynasty blue and white porcelain, Tokyo, 1975, pl. 30.

Ryoichi Fujioka and Gakuji Hasebe, Ceramic Art of the World, vol. 14: Ming dynasty, Tokyo, 1976, pl. 143.

Kobayashi Tadashi, ed., Masterpieces of the Okada Museum of Art, vol. 1, Tokyo, 2013, no. 22.

Superbly potted and boldly painted with a flowering peony scroll fluidly meandering around the body, the current ewer testifies to the artistic and technological brilliance of the Yongle reign.

The form of the pear-shaped ewers which is believed to emanate from a Middle Eastern metal shape, may in fact have developed from small egg-shaped ewers produced in the Southern Song dynasty (1127-1279), which had shorter spouts and no separate neck and therefore lacked the joining strut. In the Yuan dynasty (1279-1368) already a form similar to the present one had appeared. Compare, for example, a celadon ewer recovered from a shipwreck sunk off Shinan, Korea in 1323, illustrated in Relics Salvaged from the Seabed off Sinan. Materials I, Seoul, 1985, pl. 125. The form was then refined in proportions and reached its most mature, balanced shape in the Yongle reign (1403-24), when this vessel was made.

The decoration of such ewers was inspired by earlier copper-red decorated ewers from the Hongwu period, such as one adorned with lotus motifs and preserved in the Sir Percival David Foundation in the British Museum, London, no. PDF,A.696 and illustrated in Stacey Pierson, Illustrated Catalogue of Underglaze Blue and Copper Red Decorated Porcelains in the Percival David Foundation of Chinese Art, London, 2004, p. 74, no. A696. The Yongle ewers, however, compared to the earlier Hongwu vessels, often lack the lappet border encircling the lower body, allowing the potters to utilise a larger space to create a more fluid portrayal of the flowering scrolls.

Related examples housed in museum collections include one preserved in the British Museum, London, formerly from the collection of Sir Augustus Wollaston Franks, published in Jessica Harrison-Hall, Ming Ceramics in the British Museum, London, 2001, no. 3:16, and another sold in our London rooms, 27th November 1973, lot 215, now in the Matsuoka Museum of Art, Tokyo, illustrated in Yeo and Jean Martin, Chinese Blue and White Ceramics, Singapore, 1978, fig. 4. See also two related examples, one sold in our London rooms, 18th June 1985, lot 102, and another formerly from the Manno Art Museum, Tokyo, sold at Christie’s Hong Kong, 28th November 2018, lot 2095.

Similar ewers decorated with a large peony instead of a flowering scroll like the present vessel include one with the bridge to the spout and loop on the handle missing, in the Topkapi Saray Museum, Istanbul, is illustrated in Regina Krahl and John Ayers, Chinese Ceramics in the Topkapi Saray Museum, Istanbul, vol. II, London, 1986, no. 619; another missing part of its spout, from the Ardabil Shrine and now in the National Museum of Iran, Tehran, published in Takatoshi Misugi, Chinese Porcelain Collections in the Near East: Topkapi and Ardebil, vol. III, Hong Kong, 1981, pl. A80; and a third, today in the collection of Musée Guimet, Paris (accession no. MA12714), recently included in the exhibition West Encounters East: A Cultural Conversation between Chinese and European Ceramics, Shanghai Museum, Shanghai, 2021-2022, is reputed to have been brought to France in 1547 by François de Fumel, who was appointed by Henry II of France as a diplomat to the court of the Ottoman sultan Suleiman I in Constantinople. While imperial blue and white wares from the Yongle and Xuande (1426-35) periods played a vital role in diplomacy for the Ming court, the fact that the Guimet ewer travelled from China to the Middle East and subsequently to Europe exemplifies the intricate global network and exchange in the early modern period.

來源

日本私人收藏

壺中居，東京

展覽

《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94（沒載圖）

出版

藤岡了一，《陶磁大系》，卷42：明の染付，東京，1975年，圖版30

藤岡了一及長谷部楽爾，《世界陶磁全集》，卷14：明，東京，1976年，圖版143

小林忠編，《岡田美術館名品撰》，卷1，東京，2013年，編號22

此執壺造形殊善，釉下青花大膽揮灑纏枝牡丹紋，婉轉流暢環飾壺身，足見永樂朝藝術與工藝成就。

梨形執壺之器形，據信源於中東金屬器造型，然實則可能演變自南宋時期燒造之卵形小執壺（其流口較短，且無分明頸部，故缺連接支柱）。元代已出現與本品相似之器形，可比較一例青瓷執壺，出自1323年沉沒於韓國新安海域之沉船，圖見《新安海底遺物：資料篇Ⅰ》，首爾，1985年，圖版125。此器形於永樂年間按比例繼續精煉，達至最成熟平衡之態，本品當燒造於這一黃金時間。

此類執壺紋飾靈感源自洪武時期釉裏紅執壺，例如一飾蓮紋之例，現藏倫敦大英博物館大維德基金會，館藏編號 PDF,A.696，圖見畢宗陶，《Illustrated Catalogue of Underglaze Blue and Copper Red Decorated Porcelains in the Percival David Foundation of Chinese Art, London》，倫敦，2004年，頁74，編號A696。然永樂執壺與早期洪武器物相較，常省略環飾下腹之垂瓣紋邊飾，使窰工得以運用更大空間，營造纏枝花卉更流暢之姿。

博物館收藏之相關實例包括倫敦大英博物館藏一例，原屬奧古斯都·沃拉斯頓·弗蘭克斯爵士收藏，刊載於霍吉淑，《Ming Ceramics in the British Museum》，倫敦，2001年，編號3:16；另一例售於倫敦蘇富比，1973年11月27日，編號215，現藏東京松岡美術館，圖見葉義與譚靄華，《中國青花瓷》，新加坡，1978年，圖4。另見兩件相關例，其一售於倫敦蘇富比，1985年6月18日，編號102；另一例原屬東京萬野美術館舊藏，售於香港佳士得，2018年11月28日，編號2095。

同類執壺飾以折枝牡丹而非如本品之纏枝紋飾者，包括伊斯坦堡托普卡匹皇宮博物館藏一例（流口橋鈕及柄環缺失），圖見康蕊君及約翰·艾爾斯編，《Chinese Ceramics in the Topkapi Saray Museum, Istanbul》，卷2，倫敦，1986年，編號619；另一例流口部分殘損，原屬阿德比爾神廟，現藏德黑蘭伊朗國家博物館，刊載於三杉隆敏，《Chinese Porcelain Collections in the Near East: Topkapi and Ardebil》，卷3，香港，1981年，圖版A80；第三例現藏巴黎吉美博物館（館藏編號MA12714），曾展於《東西匯流：中歐陶瓷對話》，上海博物館，上海，2021-2022年，據傳曾於1547年由弗朗索瓦·德·菲梅爾攜至法國，菲氏乃法王亨利二世任命至君士坦丁堡蘇萊曼一世宮廷之外交使節。永樂、宣德時期之御製青花瓷於明朝外交中扮演重要角色，而吉美博物館此件執壺自中國流傳至中東，繼而轉至歐洲，正體現近代早期複雜之全球網絡與交流。