A magnificent and possibly unique large blue and white 'fruit and flower' jar, Mark and period of Xuande

Chang Foundation, Taipei, acquired prior to 1990.

Hongxi Meishuguan kaiguan jinian xuanji / Chang Foundation Inaugural Catalogue, Chang Foundation, Taipei, 1990, p. 43.

James Spencer, Zhongguo lidai taoci xuanji / Selected Chinese Ceramics from Han to Qing Dynasties, Taipei, 1990, pl. 84.

Blue-and-white Conquers the Court

Regina Krahl

This jar with its uplifting fruit-and-flower design can be considered the archetypal manifestation of imperial porcelain art in the early Ming dynasty (1368–1644); and yet, with its Xuande reign mark (1426–1435), it appears to be unique. With its rich harvest of savoury fruits enticingly presented with a medley of flowers, it celebrates nature’s finest gifts throughout the seasons; and with its pleasing, generous proportions and fresh blue-and-white colour scheme, it projects a cheerfulness that cannot but captivate any viewer.

It is not surprising that vessels such as this were beloved wherever they were available; but they were never easily available. China held a worldwide monopoly on the production of porcelain, one of the world’s most versatile materials for items of daily use, and had managed to develop a ravishing style that was universally popular; but the wares were not openly available for sale and could not be acquired through ordinary trade. They are basically absent at excavation sites outside China, which otherwise yield Chinese porcelains from periods both earlier and later.

In the Yongle period (1403–1424), the court took over the production of the porcelain kilns at Jingdezhen in Jiangxi province – the only ones able to create works like this – and in effect held something like a state monopoly on porcelain. While part of their output undoubtedly was destined for imperial use, a large proportion was deemed suitable as diplomatic gifts to foreign potentates. The gigantic maritime expeditions to countries across Asia and up to the east coast of Africa during the Yongle and early Xuande reigns represented a highly unusual, peaceful ‘charm offensive’ towards foreign countries, apparently largely intended to document China’s sovereignty and to establish a clear hierarchy between China and other states.

Most foreign rulers who the Chinese fleet visited paid tribute voluntarily. China had a lot to offer, silks, lacquer and porcelain were highly desired commodities, and the court is known to have been generous, giving more than it received. Ma Huan, the interpreter, who accompanied several of these voyages reported from various regions that blue-and-white was eagerly sought, for example, from the kingdom of Champa: “They very much like the dishes, bowls, and other kinds of blue porcelain articles, the hemp-silk, silk-gauze, beads, and other such things from the Central Country, and so they bring their pale gold and give it in exchange.” (Ma Huan, Ying-yai Sheng-lan. The Overall Survey of the Ocean’s Shores [1433], ed. J.V.G. Mills, Hakluyt Society, London, 1970, p. 85).

Two ancient royal collections in the Middle East still bear testimony to this official distribution of porcelains, that of the Ottoman Sultans in Istanbul and that of the Safavid Khans today mostly in Tehran, both of which retain a good number of early Ming pieces. A Yongle prototype of the present design from the Safavid court collection is preserved in the National Museum of Iran, Tehran, see John Alexander Pope, Chinese Porcelains from the Ardebil Shrine, Washington, D.C., 1956, pl. 52 (no. 29.479) (fig. 1).

The Xuande Emperor ended the country’s maritime expeditions. The main reason was probably their exorbitant cost; but since, in addition, many of the gifts from foreign potentates, such as exotic animals, were not even appreciated at court, it certainly made much more sense to keep for imperial use at the Emperor’s own court the outstanding works of art that before had been given away.

The blue-and-white style developed at Jingdezhen had come a long way since its beginnings in the Yuan dynasty (1271–1368). The dense, somewhat overpowering, foreign-inspired manner of painting originally practised, which had largely been rejected by the Chinese elites, had given way to a fully Chinese style, as seen here, with a graceful, naturalistic depiction of different plants in a generous layout. The loosely composed, asymmetric branches of fruit are here carefully placed between the points of the cloud collar, surrounded by just enough plain white space to let the individual motifs ‘breathe’.

The free painterly style of decoration seen on the present jar is very close to that practised in the Yongle period and the piece was probably created early in the Xuande reign. It would seem that this vessel marks the very moment when the beauty of these early blue-and-white porcelains had fully won over the Chinese imperial court; as such, it is an important documentary item. To lay unmistakeable claim on the works created under his patronage, the Xuande Emperor had porcelains – as well as lacquer and other wares – emblazoned with carefully scripted marks bearing his reign name. In the Xuande period, this reign mark, which later was mostly relegated to a more discrete position on the base of the item, was sometimes still proudly and prominently displayed at the sides of the vessel, as in the present case. Items inscribed with the Xuande reign mark were not sent abroad.

In China, the fruit-and-flower design was in addition cherished as imbued with auspicious meaning, symbolizing many children and long life, as is suggested in Geng Baochang, ed., Gugong Bowuyuan cang wenwu zhenpin quanji. Qinghua youlihong/The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum. Blue and White Porcelain with Underglazed Red, Shanghai, 2000, vol. 1, pl. 108, where an unmarked covered jar of this design from the Qing Court collection is published, attributed to the Xuande period.

Sir Harry Garner also remarked on the extremely close relationship between Yongle and Xuande pieces. In discussing a covered, unmarked jar of the present design in the Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto, which he attributes to the Yongle period, he writes, that it “shows a close approach to the Imperial Hsüan Tê [Xuande] style. The decoration has a mixture of naturalism and formality, not uncommon at this time, which is not in the least incongruous” (Oriental Blue and White, London, 1954, pp. 19f. and pl. 23). And the bold scroll border of the Ardabil Shrine example, has been succinctly described by Pope (op.cit., p. 98), in way that equally pertains to our piece: “attention should be called to the scroll around the base which is unusually thick and bold… it is not simply drawn in outline and filled with pale wash, but rather seems to have been sketched in and then heavily accented with broad strokes of dark blue which cover most of the outlines and give a strongly modulated effect.”

Nevertheless, when the porcelain painters of the Xuande reign took over Yongle designs, they invariably slightly adapted them. Here, this is particularly noticeable in the size of the jar, which was enlarged (from 26 cm to 31 cm height), and in the cloud collar, which was tightened and the enclosing border reduced from triple to double outlines. The general aura and charm, however, remained unchanged, and without the reign mark it is not easy to distinguish the two periods. 

Blue-and-white vessels of the early Ming period became the most admired blue-and-white wares of all times and were copied, sometimes more, sometimes less closely, throughout the following centuries. Especially the brilliant kiln supervisor Tang Ying, who during the Yongzheng (1723–1735) and early Qianlong (1736–1795) periods was on a constant search for the best historic styles to emulate, concentrated on Xuande wares for blue-and-white. Similar fruit and flower sprays appear on many blue-and-white porcelains of that period; see, for example, a Yongzheng basin and a Qianlong meiping in Geng Baochang, op.cit., vol. 3, pls 112 and 117, where they are referred to as Xuan qing (abbreviation for Xuande blue-and-white) and an order for a ‘Xuan ware blue-and-white three-fruit meiping’ is recorded for the year 1738. The Qing (1644–1911) porcelain painters had to take great pains to imitate the lively tonal variation of the cobalt blue, which had naturally appeared in the fifteenth century, but had to be artificially procured in the eighteenth.

Of the present design, no other jar of Xuande mark and period, and no other jar of such large size appears to be recorded. Other unmarked pieces are in the Shanghai Museum, illustrated in Lu Minghua, Shanghai Bowuguan zangpin yanjiu daxi/Studies of the Shanghai Museum Collections: A Series of Monographs. Mingdai guanyao ciqi [Ming imperial porcelain], Shanghai, 2007, pl. 1-6; in the Tokyo National Museum, published in Oriental Ceramics. The World's Great Collections, Tokyo/New York/San Francisco, vol. 1, 1982, col. pl. 20; and one, sold in our London rooms, 6 June 1967, lot 40, later in the Ataka collection and now probably in the Museum of Oriental Ceramics, Osaka, was included in the exhibition Ataka Korekushion. Tōyō tōji ten/Exhibition of Far Eastern Ceramics from the Ataka Collection, Tokyo National Museum, Tokyo, 1978, no. 75. Besides the already mentioned unmarked covered jars of this design in Beijing and Toronto, another is published in Fujioka Ryoichi and Hasebe Gakuji, Sekai tōji zenshū/Ceramic Art of the World, vol. XIV: Min/Ming Dynasty, Tokyo, 1976, pl. 15; and one was sold in our Hong Kong rooms, 7 October 2006, lot 902.

It is also extremely rare to find any Xuande jar with the reign mark inscribed on the neck. A smaller Xuande jar painted with four flower sprays between petal borders – a design that also has a Yongle prototype – is similarly inscribed with a reign mark on the neck, see Christie’s London, 21 June 2001, lot 88; another Xuande jar (missing its rim) in the Palace Museum, Taipei, painted with a composite flower scroll between petal borders, has the reign mark inscribed on the base, see Mingdai Xuande guanyao jinghua tezhan tulu/Catalogue of the Special Exhibition of Selected Hsüan-te Imperial Porcelains of the Ming Dynasty, Taipei, 1998; and some extremely rare larger jars bear the reign mark on the shoulder, see a jar with a composite flower scroll between petal borders in the Palace Museum, Beijing, and a broken jar and cover of the same design, discarded at the Ming imperial kiln site at Zhushan, Jingdezhen, illustrated in Mingdai Xuande yuyao ciqi. Jingdezhen yuyao yizhi chutu yu Gugong Bowuyuan cang chuanshi ciqi duibi/Imperial Porcelains from the Reign of Xuande in the Ming Dynasty. A Comparison of Porcelains from the Imperial Kiln Site at Jingdezhen and the Imperial Collection of the Palace Museum, Beijing, 2015, pls 76 and 77 and cover.