Yuan Dynasty Blue and White Vase "Yuhuchunping"

[Anthony]

A Yuan Dynasty blue and white vase that I would like to share with everyone.

[Anthony]

More pictures

[peterp]

Hi Anthony, I'm not really into Yuan blue and white, but I have a few pieces of key information. One of these says that all Yuan blue and white wares have an unglazed bottom, with only a single exception, which does always has a glazed bottom:  Yuhu Chunping
I wonder where this partially glazed bottom fits in? Authentic? Later copy?

[Anthony]

Hi Peter,
In 1941, my great grandfather acquired it in Paris from a retired banker who once lived in Shanghai China between 1931-1936. Feel free to provide any comment regarding a Daoguang yellow ground incised dragon saucer dish that I posted yesterday. Thanks,

Anthony

[peterp]

Hi Anthony, I don't believe much in "provenance" because I have seen and heard too much that ended up as unreliable. Recently I discovered a fake Yuhuchunping was sold byone of the top tier auction houses, and it was easily recognizable as such
Anyway, I suggest you put it on ice and wait until more information comes around to verify your item.
(BTW, my information comes from a Chinese source. If I have the opportunity I will ask if it was based on archaeological evidence. Kiln shards can provide larger numbers of evidential pieces. They guy who told me this had direct contact with a researcher doing much of JDZ excavations, but I do not know if this information was from that source.)

[Anthony]

Hello Peter,

Greatly appreciated for all the information you provided. I agree; I would never thought of provenance as something to authenticate any antiques. For instance, as scientific evidence becomes available, many jade artifacts at major museums were reproduced during mid-Ch'ing Dynasty and once thought made during early Dynastic era of Han, Zhou, Three Kingdoms, etc. I believe that anything that sells will always reproduced.

I had it appraised at Sotheby's New York along with other pieces (some imperial mid-Ming to early Ch'ing Dynasties porcelains) that I inherited from my grandfather's estates in June of 2005 and this particular vase was given an estimate in the early 5 digits range. Not intend to offer for sale at this moment. I've decided to keep it as samples for educational purposes, a legacy that I would like to pass down to the next generation. I will post more pictures of other ceramics in my collection at a later time.

A way to enrich myself, please let me know at your convenience of any new information regarding methods to authenticate porcelains. Thank you.

With kind regards,
Anthony

[Anthony]

Peter,

By your definition of "later copy", are you referring to copies reproduced during 19th century or later?
Would be interesting to see pictures to validate such hypothesis.

With many thanks,
Anthony

[peterp]

Any later copies would pose a big question...this is not firm ground for anyone, I feel. 19th century would be out of question, however.
As far as I understand the fact of the existence of Yuan blue and white was only rediscovered in the early 20th century. It is said that during the Qing dynasty even the imperial court did not know about its existence. The time of production was too short, and almost all items were exported. Until a decade or two ago less than one thousand authentic pieces of Yuan blue and white pieces were known to exist in China itself.

Small B/W Yuan pieces were mainly exported to SE Asia, while the large ones went into the Middle East. There isn't much left in China it seems. When they want to research the smaller ones the Chinese researchers go to Indonesia, and the larger ones are almost exclusively found in Istanbul (Sultan's collection), and some in Iran, as far as I know.

[peterp]

I hope to clarify the issue of the glazed bottom myself. I have seen several times convincing items, but that was always an issue.