A RARE UNDERGLAZE-RED POURING BOWL, YI YUAN DYNASTY, EARLY TO MID-14TH CENTURY

the rounded sides supported on a flat base, rising to a straight rim incised with a single line border and set with an outward flaring spout above a fine coiled band of clay attached as a lug underneath, painted on the interior in vivid strokes of underglaze copper-red with a crane on an uneven ground under a tall leafy plant and in front of a single lotus leaf on a long stalk, all enclosed within a red border incised with wavy lines reserved in white, the red varying in shades from a vivid purplish tone to a dark reddish-grey, the glaze tinged to pale blue, the unglazed rim and base fired respectively to orange-red and cream-yellow

Chinese Ceramics from the Meiyintang Collection, The British Museum, London, 1994.

Regina Krahl, Chinese Ceramics from the Meiyintang Collection, London, 1994-2010, vol. 2, no. 632.

The rims and tip of the spout are chipped. There is a 5.2 cm vertical hairline crack located at approximately 5 o'clock extending into a hairline crack of approx. 5.5 cm visible on the interior. There is a small glaze gap across the lotus leaf inside and another near its foot. There is also a 0.2 x 0.2 cm kiln flake to the edge of the base. The copper-red on the bowl is quite close to the catalogue illustration.
"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."

Pouring vessels of this type, known as yi, were important vessels of daily life, made in silver and other metals, as well as in Longquan celadon and monochrome white, blue-and-white, underglaze-red decorated and cobalt-blue glazed porcelain. Chuimei Ho, ‘Social Life Under the Mongols as Seen in Ceramics’, Transactions of the Oriental Ceramic Society, vol. 59, 1994-5, p. 44 remarks that pouring bowls of this type appear in archaeological contexts often together with yuhuchun bottles or wine cups and mentions a wall painting from a Mongolian tomb in Chifeng, which shows a servant pouring liquid from such an yi bowl (or ladle) into a yuhuchun bottle.

A wall painting in the tomb of Zhang Andabuhua and his wife that can be dated to AD 1269, shows the high-ranking couple dressed in Mongolian garb in front of a screen, flanked by tables laid with wine utensils and flower vases, among them a white yuhuchun bottle and a matching pouring vessel yi; see The World of Khubilai Khan. Chinese Art in the Yuan Dynasty, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 2010, p. 83, fig. 115 (fig. 1).

The shape was probably copied from metal prototypes and a very similar silver pouring bowl was found together with silver yuhuchun ping in a hoard at Hefei, Anhui province, which contained items inscribed with a name written in Phagspa characters, as well as a date equivalent to AD 1333; a bottle and a pouring bowl from the hoard, both now in the Anhui Provincial Museum, are illustrated ibid., pp. 287f., figs. 330-31.

A monochrome white yi excavated from a Yuan tomb in Beijing and now in the Capital Museum, Beijing, is published in Shoudu Bowuguan cang ci xuan [Selection of porcelains from the Capital Museum], Beijing, 1991, pl. 70.

A similar underglaze-red decorated pouring vessel painted in the centre with a wild goose in flight holding a reed, also surrounded by a red band with incised scrolling lines, which in that case have turned a deeper red, was excavated from the hoard of Yuan ceramics at Gao’an, and is illustrated in Gao’an Yuandai jiaocang ciqi/The Porcelain from the Cellar of the Yuan Dynasty in Gao’an, Beijing, 2006, pp. 68-9, and inside the back cover, and was also included in the Metropolitan Museum exhibition, 2010, op.cit., fig. 321 (fig. 2). Another yi with a wild goose in flight holding a sprig, from the George de Menasce collection, included in the exhibition Mostra d’Arte Cinese/Exhibition of Chinese Art, Palazzo Ducale, Venice, 1954, cat. no. 594, was sold at Anderson Galleries, New York, 24th/25th January 1930, lot 383, and again in our London rooms 14th December 1976, lot 106.

The Gao’an bowl is also illustrated in Ye Peilan, Yuandai ciqi [Porcelain of the Yuan dynasty], Beijing, 1998, pl. 173 together with a copper-red decorated pouring vessel with a pair of phoenix within a similar border, pl. 174, which was sold in our London rooms 8th July 1975, lot 121, from the collection of John Henry Levy, and with another with a lingzhi spray enclosed by a similar red band from the Philippines, pl. 175. A bowl without spout and lug of the double-phoenix design within the red scroll border was sold in these rooms 30th April 1996, lot 322.

The very freely sketched nature scene inside this bowl is highly unusual and is very rarely encountered otherwise on Yuan porcelain. There is, however, a similar blue-and-white yi in the Tianminlou collection painted with three egrets and lotus, which was included in the exhibition Blue and White Porcelain from the Tianminlou Collection, Chang Foundation, Taipei, 1992, cat. no. 15 (fig. 3).