Liu Luanxiong ya stored Chinese precious porcelain, outstanding, proud of his peers. Now presents a selection of beautiful utensils, which is a rare opportunity for discerning people to enjoy the fun of collecting and learning.
In 1978, Liu's twenty-seventh year of age, he set foot in Sotheby's preview for the first time. Soon after, important old collections such as Hu Huichun, Zhao Congyan, Bernard and the British Railway Foundation were released one after another, and the boutique reproduction market was pointed out by many people as the first golden years of Sotheby's in Hong Kong. In the next ten years, Liu Shi carefully selected rare porcelain from prominent old collections, and the utensils he stored were all superior, which could be called the crown of the dynastic category.
This special session is led by the Yongle Blue and White Dragon Pattern Jar, with flexible brushstrokes, which is a masterpiece of the early Ming Dynasty, or an orphan product.
Ming Yongle Blue and White Dragon Pattern Jar
Dimensions: 24.4 cm high, 29.8 cm wide
Estimate: HK$45,000,000-65,000,000
Emperor Buddha Heart
Author: Kang Ruijun
Yongle Royal Kiln produces exquisite porcelain painting style, flexible brushstrokes, rich in imagination. This jar is unique in the world and is decorated with the essence of the craftsmanship of the Bona Royal Kiln Workshop. The two dragons circle around the instrument, head and tail each other; the mouth and teeth are wide open, the sharp claws are stretched forward, showing the dragon's posture and strength, must be carried forward, the long tail is meandering, adding a pleasant look, making people look happy, as if the dog wagged its tail and barked, jumping vividly.
There are many forms of the Chinese dragon, and the dragon (also known as the "vanilla dragon") decorated in this vessel is particularly loved. The pattern is decorated with Buddhist origins, which was already popular in China in the early Ming Dynasty, but it is rare to use it in porcelain.
This type of dragon pattern is derived from the Indian Mochara (Capricorn fish), which is a beast in the sea and is often used for building entrances and guarding portals. Around the thirteenth century, Tibetan Buddhist sculptures have been decorated with mochalos in the arched structure of the altar, inheriting the Indian torana tradition; a pair of gilded bronze mogalas can be compared to an example, or the arched niches of a Buddha statue, see Jane Casey, Naman Parmeshwar Ahuja and David Weldon, Divine Presence. Arts of India and the Himalayas, Milan, 2003, p. 135; examples of thangka and monastic frescoes such as Deborah E. Klimburg-Salter, A Thangka Painting Tradition from the Spiti Valley, Mi shing Long, November 1997, especially pp. 40-45.
Tibetan Buddhist images had a profound influence on the Yuan Dynasty, and in Middle-earth it is also seen that arched gate coupons are paired with Mogalo, such as Juyongguan Yuntai on the outskirts of Beijing. Completed in 1345, Juyongguan Yuntai was originally home to three white stupas with carved Tibetan Buddhist images and inscriptions. The relief of the arch outside the corridor is in the classic style, which can still be found in the early Ming Dynasty: the two gods on the left and right, or the flying sky, the Garo luo (dapeng golden-winged bird) is centered on the vault, a pair of Mogalo long tails are coiled, piled up and shoulders, and the gods and beasts are arranged in order, all over the arches.
Relief of Juyongguan Yuntai on the outskirts of Beijing
The Yongle Emperor devoted himself to Tibetan Buddhism, practiced Buddhist soil in Gyeonggi and Tibet, and made a large number of Buddhist vessels to provide for the monks, so the Mogaro arch coupons were popular in the early Ming Dynasty and had various forms: see the entrance to the building, such as the glass pagoda of Nanjing Dabao'en Temple built by the Yongle Emperor for his mother, and the pagoda arch coupons were made of three-colored glazed tiles, recorded in Clarence Eng, Colours and Contrast. Ceramic Traditions in Chinese Architecture, Leiden, Boston, 2015, pp. 240-43; or see thangka, e.g., Michael Henss, The Woven Image: Tibeto-Chinese Textile Tangkas of the Yuan and Early Ming Dynasties, In the Beauty of the Long Time November 1997, in particular, pp. 29-31;
Or see the Buddha statue on the side, such as the Daxiong Treasure Hall of the Fahai Temple on the outskirts of Beijing, which was inaugurated slightly later, in the eighth year of orthodoxy (1443), included in Ursula Toyka, Monumenta Serica Monograph Series LXIII: The Splendours of Paradise. Murals and Epigraphic Documents at the Early Ming Buddhist Monastery Fahai Si, St. Augustine, 2014, vol. 2, plate 27.
Nanjing Dabao'en Temple Glass Pagoda Pagoda Gate
During the Yongle Dynasty, Buddhist themes were also adopted by the Jingdezhen Royal Kiln Factory, located in Jiangxi Province, more than 200 nautical miles away from the capital Nanjing, and its kiln burning affairs attracted the attention of the emperor. Yongle Qinghua is mostly exported, and it is also suitable for making a vessel for Buddhist affairs, and this jar is a royal vessel for the Buddha. At the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, the image of Mogal in the arched structure was mostly based on its Tibetan archetype, and Jingdezhen was ingenious and created a unique Central Plains style, just like this tank. The tank body of The Magal can be described as a "hammer", which is similar to the "dragon", but the wings replace the hind legs, which is quite different from the Tibetan Moga: the nose is no different from the dragon, not like the Tibetan sacred beast as a high-turned shape; the hair is clustered, while the Tibetan Mokhara does not see any hair; the claws are divided into three toes, not the same as the lion's paw; the body has dragon scales; the long tail is like a tangled branch, which only slightly echoes the posture of the Tibetan Mokhara's tail.
The tank uses ink brushwork to depict seawater, and the technique is exquisite. The color of Langtao is changed from blue and white, layered and gradual, in order to achieve a lifelike effect, which is the first of the Yongle Dynasty porcelain. This method also depicts mountains and flat land, comparable to two Yongle moon bottles, depicting Hu Renle maiko, one in the National Palace Museum in Taipei, and the other in the Topkapi Palace Museum in Istanbul (see "Suitable for the Heart: Porcelain of the Yongle Emperor of the Ming Dynasty", National Palace Museum, Taipei, 2017, pp. 116-9; Kang Ruijun, Chinese Ceramics in the Topkapi Saray Museum, Istanbul, John. Ayers, ed., London, 1986, vol. 2, No. 612). On the two moon-hugging bottles, the pictures are painted in the blue flower lotus petal pattern, which is quite similar to this jar.
A fragment of a jar excavated from the site of the Jingdezhen Royal Kiln, glazed at the bottom of the vessel, only parts remain, see the double circle of the Blue and White New Year, which is undoubtedly a Xuande model, recorded in "Ming and Qing Dynasty Imperial Kiln Porcelain: The Palace Museum and New Achievements in the Archaeology of Jingdezhen Ceramics", Beijing, 2016, plate 130. The Xuande jar is the same size as this jar, the ornamentation is similar, and even the cloud pattern layout is the same, which shows that the imperial kiln system followed by the painter was already in the Yongle Dynasty.
Although the production of blue and white flowers in the early Ming Dynasty was vast, it rarely used the dragon pattern of The Mogalo, and there were not many people who decorated with Buddhist themes. It follows from this that the imperial court ordered the Imperial Kiln Factory to burn such utensils only for the needs of special occasions. Searching through the records, there are no other Yongle jars with this ornament, nor are there any Xuande examples well preserved, only five small cans can be compared, Xuande year, decorated with Mojialuo, but the style is very different, the beast body has no scales, the claws are like lion's paws, the mouth spits lotus branches, more recently Tibetan style: a case stored in the Palace Museum in Beijing, included in the "Palace Museum Collection of Cultural Relics and Treasures." Blue and White Glaze Red (Part 1), Shanghai, 2000, plate 100; another example in Adrian M. Joseph, Ming Porcelains. Their Origins and Development," London, 1971, plate 33, sold at Sotheby's Hong Kong on 3 October 2017, no. 101.
Ming Xuande Blue and White Dragon Jar
"Daming Xuande Year System"
Sold at Sotheby's Hong Kong on October 3, 2017, lot 101
Slightly revived in the mid-to-late Ming Dynasty, this ornament can be compared to a jar, the Jiajing Year, slightly larger, sold at Sotheby's London on 10 December 1982, No. 194, and Sotheby's Hong Kong on 8 April 2009, No. 1672.