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Expert’s note
The present meiping is distinguished by a magnificent and remarkably controlled deep rose-purple Jun-type glaze. Its finely balanced form is enveloped in a lustrous, opalescent glaze of saturated rose-purple tone, densely mottled with lavender-blue and milky lilac suffusions. Across the broad body, these colors resolve into dense, minute variegations, while around the constricted mouth the thicker glaze gathers into larger milky lavender-blue pools outlined and threaded with deep crimson-purple. Scattered pinholes and delicate variations in color and texture enliven the otherwise glossy surface, while the glaze thins to a mushroom-brown tone at the lip. This rich palette falls within the celebrated range traditionally described as rose-purple or grape-purple. Compare the numbered-five grape-purple glazed zhadou-form flowerpot dated to the 15th century in the National Palace Museum, Taipei, object number 中瓷004762N000000000 (fig. 1), and the numbered-seven purple-splashed flowerpot dated to the early 15th century and sold at Sotheby’s New York, 19 March 2025, lot 106 (fig. 2).
Although the terms ‘official Jun’ and ‘numbered Jun’ are frequently used interchangeably, they are not absolute synonyms: not all official Jun wares are numbered. Numerals from one to ten occur principally on the standardized series of flowerpots, matching stands, bulb bowls, and related display vessels produced for the court and are generally understood to indicate their relative sizes. The British Museum specifically records that dishes and stem cups of the same official quality and date were also produced without numbers. Closely related unnumbered wares include the imperial lavender-purple glazed dish dated to the Hongwu-Yongle period and sold at Sotheby’s Hong Kong, 5 May 2026, lot 803 (fig. 3), the early 15th-century Juntai dish in the British Museum, registration number 1936,1012.88 (fig. 4), and the purple-glazed bowl dated 14th-15th century in the Cleveland Museum of Art, accession number 1942.666 (fig. 5).
The dating of this group has undergone one of the most consequential revisions in modern Chinese ceramic scholarship. Formerly assigned predominantly to the Song dynasty, discoveries at the Juntai kiln site in Henan and subsequent research increasingly displaced this attribution toward the Yuan and, most convincingly, the early Ming dynasty. Li Baoping concluded that the numbered wares were most probably produced between the 14th and 15th centuries, while the British Museum now dates official Jun production broadly from 1368 to 1435. In a 2009 update to the British Museum’s online catalog, Jessica Harrison-Hall similarly reassigned the British Museum dish cited above from Chenghua-period Jingdezhen production to Juntai in the early 15th century. Although Yuan and later Ming datings have also been proposed, the weight of current evidence favors the first decades of the 15th century (see Li Baoping, ‘Numbered Jun Wares: Controversies and New Kiln Site Discoveries,’ in Transactions of the Oriental Ceramic Society, vol. 71, 2006-2007, pp. 65-77).
The extraordinary beauty of Jun glazes was later greatly admired by the Yongzheng and Qianlong emperors, who commissioned imitations of the very highest quality from the imperial kilns at Jingdezhen. In 1729, Tang Ying dispatched Wu Yaopu to Junzhou to investigate the original glaze recipes, and by the following year the resulting wares had received the Yongzheng Emperor’s personal approval. Compare a Jun-type zun with an incised Yongzheng seal mark and of the period, formerly in the W. W. Winkworth collection and sold at Bonhams Hong Kong, 29 May 2024, lot 15 (fig. 6). Production continued under Qianlong, and these Qing reproductions rank among the finest monochromes ever produced at Jingdezhen.
The broad dating of the present lot as “18th century or earlier” is retained in deference to the considered opinion of the Sotheby’s specialists who previously catalogued the vase with this very same dating. Nevertheless, its evident age and wear, the brown stoneware body, and the distinctive glaze pooling, minute pinholing, and spontaneous separation of its opalescent colors are more consistent with earlier Jun-type production than with Qing imperial porcelain. Taken together, these features place the vase more convincingly in the early Ming dynasty and, in our considered opinion, most probably in the early 15th century.
China. Superbly potted with a swelling broad-shouldered body surmounted by a short waisted neck and a cupped mouth. Covered overall in a thick, opaque glaze of deep rose-purple tone, finely mottled with milky-lavender and pale-blue suffusions, the lustrous surface displaying scattered minute pinholes. The glaze thins to a mushroom-brown tone around the mouth and continues in pale blue to the interior, ending irregularly above the foot to expose the dark brown body, while the recessed base is covered in a variegated pale-blue and mushroom-brown glaze.
Provenance: A private collection in Gothenburg, Sweden. Sotheby’s Paris, 12 June 2026, lot 380, sold for EUR 33,280 and dated by Sotheby’s experts as “18th century or earlier”. A noted collector, acquired from the above. The base with an old paper label, ‘T.C.M. O’Donovan Collection’.
Condition: Excellent condition with some old wear and typical firing irregularities, a tiny nick to the interior of the foot rim, minor glaze craquelure around the shoulder visible under strong blue UV light.
Weight: 1,482 g
Dimensions: Height 29.6 cm
Jun ware occupies a singular place in the history of Chinese ceramics. Traditionally grouped among the ‘Five Famous Wares’ of the Song dynasty, the term ‘Jun’ encompasses a complex family of wares produced over several centuries, principally at kilns in Henan and subsequently across parts of Hebei and Shanxi. Their enduring appeal lies in their thick, lustrous, and intensely opalescent glazes. Minute glassy droplets and bubbles suspended within the glaze scatter blue light, while iron and copper colorants respond to the reduction firing and intermingle to produce an extraordinary spectrum ranging from sky blue and lavender to violet, crimson, and deep rose-purple. The finest examples combine considerable technical control with the unpredictability of the kiln, creating richly variegated surfaces in which no two vessels are ever precisely alike.
The prestige of Jun wares did not end with the early kilns. During the Qing dynasty, the Yongzheng Emperor’s profound admiration for the great ceramics of antiquity inspired an ambitious revival at the imperial kilns of Jingdezhen. In 1729, the celebrated kiln superintendent Tang Ying dispatched his assistant Wu Yaopu to Junzhou to investigate the original materials and glaze recipes. Tang Ying’s account of imperial ceramic production, completed in 1735, records no fewer than nine varieties of Jun-inspired glaze, five based directly on ancient vessels sent from the imperial collection in Beijing for study and reproduction. These experiments produced some of the most magnificent monochromes of the Yongzheng period, including flambé, Jun-imitation, and lu Jun glazes, and the tradition continued to flourish under the Qianlong Emperor. Through these imperial commissions, the spontaneous beauty of the early Henan wares was transformed by the technical virtuosity of Jingdezhen, ensuring that the Jun aesthetic remained one of the most admired and enduring traditions in Chinese ceramic art.
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