A large Chinese blue and white-decorated porcelain "Peonies" jar, GuanYuan dynasty or laterRobustly potted, with a nearly vertical collar and slightly rolled lip, over a broad, swelling shoulder and tapering base, decorated in a rich, deep blue, punctuated by areas of "heaping and piling", the main band of alternating peonies among foliate scrolls, below a band of spiky-petaled lotus blossoms among further foliate scrolls with lobed and scrolled leaves, below a wave-pattern border at the neck, the foot with broad vertical lappets below a narrow band of classic scroll.
H: 11 7/8 in.PROVENANCE:Private collection, New York, acquired in Iran in the 1970s
NOTE: the present jar relates to a series of jars decorated with a variety of motifs, boldly painted, dated to the Yuan dynasty, where the marriage of large forms and freely decorated motifs are examples of the flowering of Chinese blue and white porcelain. The closest jar in terms of decoration appears to be the example in the Shanghai Museum (https://www.shanghaimuseum.net/museum/frontend/en/articles/CI00004380.html), which shares with the present example the distinctive lotus with spiky petals and lobed leaves in the shoulder band, as well as the treatment of the peonies, and the foliage in the main band with the stylized veins drawn in, and also the elaborate lobed lappets within the main lotus-petal lappets at the foot. Compare also the "Peonies" jar sold at Christie's, Hong Kong, November 30, 2016, lot 3307, where other examples are noted: illustrated in So¯ Gen no bijutsu, Tokyo, 1980, pl. 198, and again by Zhu Yuping Yuandai qinghuaci, Shanghai, pp. 82-3, no. 3-34; one sold at Sotheby’s London, June 7, 1988, lot 211A; one sold at Sotheby’s New York, March 30, 2006, lot 61; and one in the Shanxi Provincial Museum, illustrated in Zhongguo wenwu jinghua daquan: Taoci juan, Hong Kong, 1993, no. 551. Compare also the decoration on the jars sold at Christie's Hong Kong, The Imperial Sale, April 26, 2004, lot 1021, and Christie's Hong Kong, May 31, 2010, lot 1985.