Expert’s note: The combination of iron-red and green glazes was utilized primarily during the Jiajing period (1521-1567). According to Daisy Lion-Goldschmidt in Ming Porcelain, New York, 1978, page 164, in her discussion of the 'Red-and-Green' Group, this palette would come to dominate polychrome porcelains, eventually leading to the appearance of famille verte during the second half of the seventeenth century.

China. The ovoid body is supported on a flat base and rises to a short and slightly flared neck with a lipped rim. Boldly painted in green, red, and aubergine enamels with three lobed panels enclosing a mythical hound, a Buddhist lion and a Qilin, each with a long snout and standing foursquare amid foliage and rockwork depicted in profile and facing the viewer, surrounded by floral sprays, all beneath a band of phoenixes and peony blossoms below the rim decorated with lingzhi sprays. Covered overall with a finely crackled transparent glaze of a pale-ivory tone, the interior with a dark brown glaze.

Provenance: The J. M. Hu, Zande Lou Collection. An old, padded silk box fitted to the vase accompanies the lot. Jenmou Hu (1911-1995) was arguably the most important collector of Chinese ceramics in the last century. In both his personal collection and in his bequests to cultural institutions, J. M. Hu stood as a model of the modern scholar-collector. The eldest son of the influential banker Hu Chun, he was raised in an elegant private residence amongst his many stepbrothers and stepsisters. In keeping with tradition, he was given a rigorous background in the Chinese classics, supplemented by a Western-style education. He first encountered Chinese ceramics during his student years, when he purchased a nineteenth-century brush washer for his desk. This initial foray into collecting would become emblematic of J. M. Hu’s poignant relationship with art: even amidst the upheavals of war and the evolution of his collection, the modest brush-washer stayed with him until his death in 1995. Hu’s boyhood studies within the Chinese literati tradition greatly informed his philosophical approach to life and collecting; humble and erudite, he consistently affirmed that it was the visceral connection between a collector and his acquisitions that was of essential importance. True value, in J. M. Hu’s estimation, lay far beyond monetary worth. A noted traditionalist, he went to great lengths designing wooden stands and fitted boxes to preserve and display his Chinese treasures and delighted in sharing the collection with fellow connoisseurs. For J. M. Hu, collecting was a serious, scholarly pursuit not to be taken lightly. The joy of art came with a responsibility to honor both the artist and the object. Hu often spoke of the three necessary criteria in collecting: zhen (authenticity), jing (rarity and quality), and xin (condition). Yet it was an individual’s bond with a work of art, as evidenced in J. M. Hu’s beloved brush washer, that was of fundamental significance. In handling and examining his ceramics, Hu sought that indefinable delight that could come only from the beauty of artistry. In the tradition of Chinese literati who bestowed symbolic monikers upon their studios, libraries, and collections, the name of J. M. Hu’s studio, Zande Lou, referenced the influential Lanting Xu of the famed Jin dynasty calligrapher Wang Xizhi, a text that describes Zande as a person’s inner happiness. Although J. M. Hu intended the meaning of Zande to express this fleeting happiness, which he experienced as a collector when examining an object, the word has also come to be interpreted as the inherently transitory nature of collecting and possessing fine art. J. M. Hu’s collection of Chinese ceramics provided abundant opportunity for personal scholarship and historical investigation. As early as the 1940s, he longed for a welcoming social environment where like-minded collectors could share and discuss art and objects. Two decades later, he established the Min Chiu Society in Hong Kong alongside fellow collectors K.P. Chen and J.S. Lee. A noted cultural philanthropist, J. M. Hu gifted substantial groupings from his collection to the Shanghai Museum in 1950 and again in 1989. Many of these objects remain on view in the museum’s Zande Lou Gallery. To this day, J. M. Hu remains a celebrated figure amongst collectors of Chinese art.
Condition: Remarkably well preserved, commensurate with age. Expected old wear and firing irregularities, including some burst bubbles, firing cracks, tiny bumps, pitting, dark spots, and glaze recesses. Occasional light scratches. Minor chips to base, mostly smoothened over time. Small hairlines. Displaying exceptionally, due to its size and excellent condition.

Weight: 13.5 kg
Dimensions: Height 40 cm