The moon flask (also called in Chinese Baoyueping) has a narrow cylindrical neck with two scroll handles. It is painted on one side with two magpies perched on a flowering prunus branch and on the other with two bulbuls on a flowering cherry branch. A ring round the bottom of the neck suspends formal lingzhi sprays repeated round the base, the neck with bamboo, the handles have ruyi scrolls. The underside of the base is ground.

“Precious moon flasks” are among the most beautiful Chinese porcelain of all time. They originally date from the Yongle period (1403-1424) and are an adaptation of a much earlier Near Eastern leather bag. Pottery examples have been found in Syria. Some scholars have suggested a Syrian glass origin. This flask was considered to be a 15th-century Ming original in the Wu Lai-hsi sale and when Mrs. Sedgwick bought it, but a close examination of the painting, glaze and ceramic material, combined with the fact that under the base it appears to have a mark ground off, shows it to be an 18th-century copy. Interestingly, in the early 21st century, a Yongzheng or even Qianlong mark could have made it almost as desirable as a Yongle original. The decoration of birds on branches is loosely based on Song paintings with similar themes.

Literature: Anthony du Boulay, The Duberly Collection of Chinese Art at Winchester College (Winchester, 2019), pp. 66-67; W.B. Honey, The Ceramic Art of China (London, 1945), pl. 87(b), as 15th century

Provenance: Bequeathed as part of the Duberly Collection, 1978; purchased by Major Montagu and Lady Eileen Duberly from John Sparks, 5 May 1951 (£50); formerly in the Collection of Mrs.Walter Sedgwick, and the Wu Lai-Hsi Collection, sold Sotheby’s, London, 26 May 1937, lot 13

Location: Treasury, Gallery 2