R60,000 - R80,000
AN EXTREMELY RARE CHINESE "BLUE AND WHITE" "BEGONIA" YUNNAN WARE JAR AND COVER, YUAN DYNASTY, 1279 - 1368
Rising from a circular foot to a wide bulbous shoulder applied with a "pie-crust" trim, fluidly painted in a blackish-blue underglaze with large begonia-shaped blossoms amidst scrolling vines above cloud-shaped motifs, the domed cover surmounted by a shaped conical finial within a "pie-crust" trim above scrolls
The dating of this lot is consistent with an Oxford Authentication Thermoluminescence Analysis Report with sample number C118h71.
37cm high
LOT ESSAY
The Mongol warrior, Genghis Kahn, founded the short-lived Yuan Dynasty (1279 -1368) concorquering vast areas of land including parts of India, Russian and most importantly Persia.
The Persians revered blue and white ceramics, and, although having the necessary cobalt ore for the blue colouration, they could not stabilize it in firing. So by way of Middle Eastern merchant sailing ships, they sent to China, known for her prowess with ceramics, a bright blue-firing cobalt.
The infamous Jingdezhen kilns started producing blue and white wares around 1330.
Relatively unknown until recently, kiln sites were excavated in Yunnan province such as the Yuxi kilns.
These kilns experimented with, and produced "blue and white" wares around the same time as Jingdezhen using local cobalt ore resulting in wares with a grey-blue or blue-black underglaze with a somewhat "grainy" finish.
CONDITION REPORT
* Fine overall condition, free from restoration
* No hairline cracks
* Minor chips to the "pie-crust" application
* Soiling
* Traces of earth adhering to the interior
* Two apertures to the base for the extraction of core clay at Oxford
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