A RARE AND FINELY PAINTED BLUE AND WHITE MEIPING MING DYNASTY, 16TH CENTURY |

elegantly proportioned, the generously rounded baluster body tapering towards a splayed foot, the broad principal register painted with a large fruiting and flowering pomegranate tree, its branches supporting a pair of long-tailed birds, with butterflies and other insects hovering in the air above ornamental rockwork and other vegetation below, all above a border of lotus, arrowhead and aquatic plants emerging from turbulent waves encircling the foot, the shoulder with a collar of ruyi-shaped pendant lappets enclosing lotus reserved on a diaper ground, interspersed with strings of beads suspending jewels and precious objects, and a trefoil border below scattered floral sprays at the neck, the base unglazed, Japanese wood box (3)

Hirano Koto-ken, Tokyo.

Chūgokutoji Gen Ming Meihinten [Chinese Ceramics from the Yuan - Ming Dynasties], The Japan Ceramic Society, Nihonbashi Takashimaya, Tokyo, 1956, cat. no. 82.
Chūgoku bijutsu ten series: Min Shin no bijutsu [Chinese Art exhibition series. The Art of the Ming and Qing dynasties], Osaka Art Museum, Osaka, 1980, cat. no. 1-57.

The rim with two incipient chips each measuring apprx. 2 cm, and associated hairlines to the interior rim. With light wear and scattered firing imperfections.
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.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

This vase is exquisitely painted with a scene of long-tailed birds chirping on flowering branches. Sensitively rendered with their heads turned towards each other, the painter has successfully conveyed the fleeting nature of the subject. The linear rendering of the design, with delicate details executed with a fine brush and filled with broad washes of cobalt in subtle hues, continues the painterly style developed in the Chenghua reign (1465-1487).  

Vases painted with such exquisite designs and lacking a reign mark are unusual, although a similar meiping, with the painting somewhat less refined, was included in the Southeast Asian Ceramic Society exhibition Chinese Blue and White Ceramics, National Museum, Singapore, 1978, cat. no. 126. See also a jar painted in a similar style with birds on a flowering pomegranate tree, sold in our Hong Kong rooms, 5th November 1997, lot 1406; and another in the Museum für Kunsthandwerk, Frankfurt am Main, illustrated in Gunhild Gabbert, Chinesisches Porzellan, Frankfurt am Main, 1977, cat. no. 14.