AN EXQUISITE BLUE AND WHITE ‘ARROW VASE’ BIRDFEEDER MARK AND PERIOD OF XUANDE

delicately shaped in the form of a miniature 'arrow' vase for the pitch-pot game, with a pear-shaped body of eight-lobed section and a tall neck flanked by two small tubular lugs, set with a small loop on one side for attachment to the bars of a birdcage forming a three-dimensional extension to a cherry branch bearing eight fruits delicately painted in soft tones of cobalt under a blue-tinged glaze, all between two petal borders at the rim and foot, the lugs picked out with a 'classic' scroll, the neck inscribed in underglaze blue with a six-character horizontal reign mark, the recessed base glazed white and the footring left unglazed

Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Alfred Clark, no.356 (label).
Sotheby’s London, 17th December 1996, lot 55.

Regina Krahl, Chinese Ceramics from the Meiyintang Collection, London, 1994-2010, vol. 4, no. 1656.

There is a 0.7 cm. hairline crack at the rim, but apart from this the bird feeder is in overall good condition, with only some minor glaze crackles, including a 1.5 cm one around the shoulder.
"In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective, qualified opinion. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

Birdcage ‘vases’ such as this piece were probably filled with stalks of grain or other plants to serve as birdfeeders. This design appears to be otherwise unrecorded and is not listed in the Gugong ciqi lu [Record of porcelains from the Old Palace], Taipei, 1961-6, an inventory of the Ming porcelains in the National Palace Museum, Taipei. Birdfeeders of various imaginative shapes were produced in the Xuande reign, but are hardly known from any other period.

A Xuande birdcage vase of this form painted with lotus scrolls was recovered from the waste heaps of the Ming imperial kilns at Jingdezhen, and included in the exhibition Jingdezhen chutu Ming Xuande guanyao ciqi/Xuande Imperial Porcelain Excavated at Jingdezhen, Chang Foundation, Taipei, 1998, cat. no. 57-3.