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Expert’s note:
At least two Xuande vases of this type without reign marks are known. One is in the National Palace Museum, Taipei, included in the museum’s Special Exhibition of Selected Hsuan-te Imperial Porcelains of the Ming Dynasty, Taipei, 1998, cat. no. 15. The other is in the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco, object number B69P22L, published in He Li, Chinese Ceramics: A New Standard Guide, London, 1996, pl. 408, and also in Clarence F. Shangraw, “Fifteenth-Century Blue-and-White Porcelain in the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco,” Orientations, May 1985, pp. 34–46.
Dating this vase is inherently challenging. The painting is entirely freehand, and the cobalt blue is exceptionally intense. The morning glory blossoms lack the refinement seen on imperial examples, yet the masks are far more expressively modeled, and the painting gives them a vivid, almost animated quality. The form and construction—assembled from multiple parts, a technically demanding process—are identical to the imperial Xuande vases. However, the proportions differ, which excludes this vase from belonging to the same series as the imperial examples.
This piece is either an early prototype predating the Xuande vases or a later work from the 15th or 16th century, possibly even early 17th century during the Transitional period. Without TL testing (impossible due to the small size) or direct comparison with reference pieces, a precise date cannot be established.
What is certain is that this is a fascinating and extremely rare example. It is not a copy of the Xuande vases. Anyone capable of constructing such a complex form could have easily imitated Xuande painting if that had been the intention. This alone strongly argues for an early prototype from before or at the very beginning of the Xuande period, in the first half of the 15th century.
China. The square body with canted corners, surmounted by a tall cylindrical neck flanked by two handles issuing from beast masks, all supported on a splayed foot. The exterior finely painted in cobalt blue with blossoming vines of morning glory between line borders at the foot and mouth, and the beast masks highlighted in blue.
Provenance: Couturier & Nicolay, Paris, France, 21 March 1974. The Collection of Sam and Myrna Myers, Paris, France, acquired from the above. A copy of an invoice from Couturier & Nicolay, Paris, France, dated 21 March 1974, accompanies this lot. Note that on this invoice, the present lot is dated as "Epoque Yong-tcheng" and described as "Petit vase quadrangulaire" (small quadrangular vase).
Condition: Good original condition with some old wear and firing irregularities including tiny firing cracks to the interior. Some fritting, the rim with a shallow chip.
Weight: 449 g
Dimensions: Height 15.5 cm
The Xuande Emperor (r. 1426–1435), a talented artist and major patron of the arts, oversaw the production of exceptionally high-quality Imperial porcelain. By the Jiajing period (1522–1566), these porcelains were already considered superior to Song dynasty wares. Xuande blue-and-white porcelains were especially prized and remained so into the Qing dynasty, even being gifted to the Kangxi Emperor on his birthday.
The complex form of the vase meant it had to be made in sections. The two animal mask handles were made from a carved mold, and their striking appearance and fine details demonstrate the outstanding skills of the potter. Similarly, the core body, consisting of an upper and lower section, was made from a mold and luted together, while the neck and the high foot were made separately. Such a complicated form is not only very difficult to construct, but also much easier to become deformed during firing than round vessel shapes, so that the success rate for such faceted vases must have been very low, thus making them very rare.
Morning glory had been popular in China for a few centuries but was not used as the primary decorative motif on other porcelains, thus porcelains with this motif are generally quite rare.
Xuande faceted vases appear to have been a particular favorite of the Yongzheng Emperor. Two extant handscrolls of the Yongzheng period, dated in accordance with 1728 and 1729 respectively, depict works of art from the Imperial collection including four such vases, all shown on different wooden stands; see Regina Krahl, “Art in the Yongzheng Period: Legacy of an Eccentric Art Lover”, Orientations, November/December 2005, pl. 2.
Literature comparison:
Compare a related blue and white vase with morning glories, formerly in the Percival David Foundation (where it was dated mid-15th century and the reign mark described as “poorly written”) and now in the British Museum (where it is dated to the Xuande period), registration number PDF,A.633, and another related example with a Xuande mark and of the period, in the Palace Museum, Beijing, illustrated in The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum, Blue and White Porcelain with Underglaze Red (I), vol. 34, Hong Kong, 2000, p. 99, no. 93.
Auction result comparison:
Type: Related
Auction: Sotheby’s London, 13 May 2015, lot 38
Price: GBP 3,845,000 or approx. EUR 7,000,000 converted and adjusted for inflation at the time of writing
Description: A rare blue and white facetted vase, Xuande mark and period
Expert remark: Compare the closely related form, decoration, and motifs. Note the Xuande reign mark and the size (13.8 cm).
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