: On September 16, Doyle New York conducted the highly anticipated
auction of the F. Gordon Morrill collection of Chinese and
Chinese export porcelain.
The Morrill collection comprised 115 lots, including more than 30
lots of important Yuan and early Ming blue and white porcelain, a
group of fine Qing porcelain and a large selection of very early
Chinese export porcelain.
With important collectors, prominent dealers and distinguished
museums from around the world bidding on the telephones and in
the salesroom, the collection fetched $12,046,669. A very rare
Yuan Dynasty blue and white porcelain "Pilgrim" flask from the
mid-1300s sold for $5,831,500, setting a new world auction record
for a piece of Chinese porcelain. The previous world record for
Chinese porcelain was set in Hong Kong in October 2000 when a
Sixteenth Century Wucai fish jar and cover sold for $5,657,640.
Prior to the exhibition and auction at Doyle New York, there was
a highly successful exhibition of highlights from the Morrill
Collection in Hong Kong in August. The exhibition took place at
prominent entrepreneur David Tang's exclusive China Club, and
attracted large numbers of collectors and dealers from Hong Kong,
Taiwan, Singapore and the Chinese mainland.
The F. Gordon Morrill collection was one of the finest
collections to appear at auction in decades. The collection was
assembled by Morrill during the 1960s and 1970s, at a time when
many notable collections were coming onto the market. Morrill was
one of the few important collectors focusing primarily on blue
and white porcelain created during the Fourteenth and early
Fifteenth Centuries. In 1971 and 1974, a number of pieces from
the Morrill collection were exhibited at the Museum of Fine Arts,
Boston, which described the Morrill collection as "equal in
quality to the superb collection at the Ardebil Shrine in Tehran,
Persia."
"We were honored to offer the F. Gordon Morrill Collection at
Doyle New York," said Kathleen M. Doyle, chairman and chief
executive officer of Doyle New York.
Yuan Dynasty dragon dish, $1,687,500.
"We were very pleased with the large numbers of international
bidders who went to the Hong Kong exhibition, and then came to New
York for the auction," said Doyle Senior Vice President Andrea
Bluck Frost, a specialist for the sale. "It was especially exciting
to see such strong competition coming from the new collectors from
the Chinese mainland who are emerging as an influential force in
the auction world."
Highlighting the Morrill collection was the massive blue and
white porcelain "Pilgrim" flask from the Yuan dynasty, which sold
to a prominent collector on the telephone who preferred to remain
anonymous.
Measuring 14 inches tall, the flask was acquired by Morrill in
1973 from the estate of Sir Harry Garner, an internationally
prominent collector and author of the classic book, Oriental
Blue and White. This extraordinary flask was decorated on
each side with a nearly identical design of a water dragon
chasing a pearl amid surging waves. Only six other examples of
the "Pilgrim" flask form are known to exist, and all are in
museum collections.
Another highlight of the Morrill sale, also from the Yuan
dynasty, was a large single dragon dish dating to the mid-1300s.
The dish was decorated with a celestial dragon exuding bands of
flames and facing directly front. Only two other large single
dragon dishes of this era appear to exist, one in the Topkapi
Saray in Istanbul and one in the Ardebil Shrine in Tehran. At 19
inches in diameter, the Morrill example is the largest of the
three. On the Morrill example, the dragon's head is facing
forward, making this the only known Fourteenth Century example of
a dragon depicted face forward. The dish sold for $1,687,500.
The Morrill auction featured an unusually large selection of Ming
dynasty blue and white porcelain. Highlighting the Ming
porcelains was a blue and white "Phoenix" porcelain jarlet
measuring only 53/16 inches tall. The jarlet bore the
double-encircled six-character mark of the Emperor Xuande
(1426-1435) and was of the period. A symbol of the Empress, the
legendary phoenix, was depicted on two sides of the jarlet in
midflight amid twining vines and flowers. After much competition,
this diminutive jarlet sold for $511,500.
Another featured Ming porcelain was a blue and white "Six Fruits"
bowl, which, like the jarlet, also bore the six-character mark of
the Emperor Xuande and was of the period. Measuring 119/16 inches
in diameter, this bowl was plain on the interior and painted on
the exterior with six auspicious fruits. The bowl sold for
$483,500.
Among the other notable Ming dynasty porcelains was a graceful
blue and white porcelain Meiping, circa 1420-1430, decorated with
peony scrolls that sold for $321,100; a blue and white porcelain
dish with a barbed edge from the Yongle period (1403-1425),
$298,700; and a rare blue and white porcelain "Melon" jar from
the Xuande period. Measuring only 41/4 inches tall, the jar sold
for $276,300.
Ming "Phoenix" jarlet, $511,500.
Of noteworthy provenance was a blue and white porcelain
"Grapevine" charger with an Imperial history. Dating from the
Yongle period and measuring 147/8 inches in diameter, the dish was
painted in a grapevine design with tendrils supporting three
clusters of grapes. The charger was presented by the Dowager
Empress Cixi to Sir Robert Hart, the inspector general of the
Imperial (Chinese) Maritime Customs at the Chinese Treaty Ports, on
the occasion of his retirement in January 1908. This charger sold
for $253,900.
The Chinese export in the collection numbered 60 lots of
Sixteenth through early Eighteenth Century blue and white and
armorial porcelain, and included objects created for the Dutch,
English and Italian markets.
Highlighting the export ware was a rare famille rose porcelain
five-piece "Pronk" garniture, circa 1740. The garniture comprised
two beakers measuring 111/4 inches tall and three bottle vases
measuring 113/16 inches tall. Each piece was boldly enameled on
both sides with a pink-breasted, long tailed parrot, or macaw,
grasping cherries while perched on a swing suspended from a
shaped cluster.
This garniture had been on loan to the Peabody Essex Museum in
Salem, Mass., from 1998 until 2003. The garniture sold for
$77,675.
