Pear-shaped Phoenix or Yuhuchunping vase in Chinese porcelain from the Yuan dynasty. The vase is heavy and thickly hand modeled. During this dynasty, painting with a blue underglaze decoration was applied with great skill. The blue and white decoration already has a high degree of perfection in this period. Partly unglazed rough round base, slightly spreading round foot, merging into a pear-shaped corpus that narrows upwards into a conical neck with spreading neck and round lip. The light blue cover is underglaze painted with a beautiful Samarra (Persian) blue cobalt in various shades, ranging from almost black purple to a bright blue, which is painted in several layers. Here and there we see a clear “heaped and piled” effect, where the thick cobalt has penetrated the coating at the attachment points and has turned almost black during the firing process. We also see rust discoloration and tin light in these dark spots. With a magnifying glass we see countless craters in the glaze, which gives an uneven feeling when rubbed over it. This is the so-called orange peel, typical for this period. The base is outlined by two parallel concentric blue lines surmounted by a frieze of double-edged ruyi elements with thick-walled outlines, connected by two bold, thick horizontal lines, above which again two circular lines. The corpus is symmetrically hand-painted with two large peonies with white leaves, each accompanied by two smaller leaves with stems and large pointed leaves. On the corpus we see two Fengchang or phoenixes, one with head up, the other with head down. The head and neck are typically small. The bill resembles that of a parrot, indicating an early period. The phoenix is ​​the symbol of the Empress. Above it we see a band of geometric chrysanthemum petals and stamens. The neck is painted with a row of long pointed banana leaves, the tip pointing upwards with a prominent stem and blue smaller stems inside (in late Yuan and Ming these are painted white). The neckline ends in a widening collar with a rounded edge. Round black spot inside the lip due to ash during the firing process, also typical for the Yuan dynasty. Old Label from Christie’s auction, lot 176. We therefore have every reason to believe that this vase is an original blue and white vase from the Yuan dynasty, most likely the Zhizheng period and made in the Jingdezhen kilns. To be dated around 1340.

Condition: baking flaw on the inside of the lip, otherwise perfect. Top piece!