A 14th‑century Yuan dynasty “Jinxiang Ting” narrative jar sold for nearly HK$175 million (US$22 million) at Christie’s Hong Kong today (30 April), becoming the most valuable object sold at auction in Asia across all categories so far this year.
The blue‑and‑white jar, painted with scenes from popular Yuan dramas and counted among the celebrated “ten great jars” of the period, was once in the British Rail Pension Fund collection. It first appeared in the market at Sotheby’s Hong Kong in 1989, when noted Hong Kong dealer William Chak of Chak’s bought it for about HK$2.6 million. The jar resurfaced at Christie’s in 2005, fetching HK$47 million and entering the Ai Lian Tang collection.
Two decades on, it became the star lot of Christie’s single‑owner sale The Ai Lian Tang Collection – 800 Years of Chinese Ceramics. With spirited bidding, all 20 lots found buyers, many at multiples of their estimates, and half brought more than HK$10 million. The sale totalled HK$376 million (US$48 million).
The auction follows Christie’s first sale from the Ai Lian Tang collection last October, focused on imperial scholar’s objects, where 22 of 25 lots sold and brought HK$146 million. Taken together, the two sales have generated HK$523 million (US$67 million), the highest total ever achieved at Christie’s in Asia for a single‑owner collection of Chinese works of art.
The Yuan “Jinxiang Ting” narrative jar was hammered at HK$148 million
Lot 804 | An important magnificent blue and white ‘jinxiang ting’ narrative jar | The Ai Lian Tang Collection
Yuan dynasty (1279-1368)
Height: 27.4 cm
Provenance:
- Sold at Sotheby's New York, 23 October 1976, lot 242
- The British Rail Pension Fund collection
- Sold at Sotheby's Hong Kong, Important Chinese Porcelain, Enamels and Jade Carvings from the Works of Art Collection of The British Rail Pension Fund, 16 May 1989, lot 12
- The Property of a Gentleman; sold at Christie’s Hong Kong, 28 November 2005, lot 1403
Estimate on request (Starting Bid: HK$30,000,000)
Hammer Price: HK$148,000,000
Sold: HK$174,900,000 (US$22.3 million)
Auctioneer Liang-lin Chen opened bidding for the lot at HK$30 million, drawing at least six telephone bidders and two bidders in the room. Bidding progressed at a measured pace, and after around 14 bids the price had already climbed to HK$80 million.
At that point the contest narrowed to two specialists – Chi‑fan Tsang, Deputy Chairman of Asia Pacific and International Director of Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art, and Marco Almeida, Head of Department.
Neither was willing to back down, and they traded roughly another eleven bids. The jar finally hammered at HK$148 million, selling to Almeida’s telephone client, paddle number 8211, for a final price of nearly HK$175 million including premium.
William Chak, who first bought the jar back in 1989, was delighted with the result: “Large‑format Yuan blue‑and‑white with figures is extremely rare, and this result is a real boost for the market. I’m very happy to see such an important piece find a good home – great works always bring great prices.”
Marco Almeida (middle) winning the lot for his client, paddle 8211
William Chak previously acquired the jar at auction in 1989
Yuan zaju drama was the popular theatre of its day and one of imperial China’s great literary movements. Staged in four acts, these plays wove together song, dance, poetic dialogue, vernacular speech, and even martial arts, spinning well‑known stories into a live spectacle.
The ten known narrative jars take their imagery from some of the most celebrated zaju plays, among them The Romance of the Western Chamber and the historical drama Three Visits to the Thatched Cottage. One became a market legend in 2005, when the Guiguzi Descending the Mountain jar sold at Christie’s London for almost £15.7 million, setting an auction record for Asian art at the time.
Most of the others are now in museum collections in China, Japan, and the United States, including the Hengxian Museum in Guangxi, the Idemitsu Museum of Arts in Tokyo, and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Only two remain in major Asian private collections; the present example is one of them.
The scene on this jar comes from Jinxiang Ting (The Pavilion of Fragrant Brocades) – its title neatly inscribed above the pavilion doorway. It depicts a love story between the scholar Chen Gui and the beautiful Meng Yuemei, set against the turmoil of the An Lushan Rebellion in the Tang dynasty as war closes in around them.
The couple meet in the Meng family garden, fall in love at first sight, and pledge themselves at the Pavilion of Fragrant Brocades. Her father agrees to the match on the condition that Chen first pass the imperial examinations in the capital. Chen succeeds, but promptly offends the powerful general An Lushan and is exiled to a distant posting. Despairing of ever seeing Yuemei again, he marries another woman he meets on the journey.
When the rebellion erupts, Yuemei’s father also incurs An Lushan’s wrath, and the Meng family is scattered. Yuemei escapes with her maid but is later sold into the household of the celebrated general Guo Ziyi as a singer. When Guo learns her story, he arranges her return to Chen, and the couple finally marries. For contemporary audiences, Guo was already famed as the general who helped suppress the uprising, so his act of kindness would have seemed entirely natural.
The flourishing of zaju drama in the Yuan dynasty was closely tied to the period's political climate. Court elites were enthusiastic patrons, while repeated suspensions of the civil service examinations blocked many educated men from official careers and pushed them instead toward drama and popular literature. When the Ming court later imposed tight controls on zaju in the early 15th century, production of narrative vessels of this kind effectively ceased.
A blue and white "Guiguzi" jar | Yuan dynasty | Sold: £15,688,000, Christie’s London, 2005
Guiguzi Descending the Mountain, Yuan dynasty woodblock illustration
This jar has the classic Yuan silhouette: a straight mouth, short neck, broad, rounded shoulders, and a full body that tapers to a short, unglazed foot. The decoration is arranged in crisp registers from top to bottom – crashing waves at the neck, scrolling peonies at the shoulder, the narrative scene encircling the belly, and stylised lotus petals at the foot. The scene runs as a continuous horizontal band, designed to be read in the round.
Workshops of the period also produced woodblock‑printed illustrated books that told the stories on which zaju dramas were based. On the celebrated Guiguzi jar, scholars have matched specific figures, poses, and costumes directly to surviving woodblock illustrations, suggesting that some porcelain designs were based on images from the same publishers.
Lot 816 | A magnificent fine famille rose ‘peach’ bowl | The Ai Lian Tang Collection
Yongzheng six-character mark in underglaze blue within a double circle and of the period (1723-1735)
Diameter: 14 cm
Provenance:
- J.D. Chen (Chen Rentao) collection, Hong Kong
- Paul (1902-1998) and Helen Bernat (1908-1993) collection
- Sold at Sotheby's Hong Kong, The Paul and Helen Bernat Collection of Important Qing Imperial Porcelain and Works of Art, 15 November 1988, lot 44 (one of a pair)
- Sold at Sotheby's Hong Kong, Highly Important Ming and Qing Imperial Porcelain from a Private Collection, 29 April 1997, lot 401 (one of a pair)
- Sold at Christie's Hong Kong, 29 May 2007, lot 1374 (one of a pair)
Estimate: HK$15,000,000 - 20,000,000
Hammer Price: HK$26,000,000
Sold: HK$32,220,000 (US$4.1 million)
This type of famille‑rose bowls painted with bats and peaches are among the most coveted works of the Yongzheng and Qianlong imperial kilns. Very few ever reach the market, and when a well‑preserved example does appear, a strong price is almost guaranteed. A comparable bowl from the collection of the legendary dealer Edward T. Chow fetched HK$26.79 million at Sotheby’s Hong Kong in 2020.
The present bowl was originally one of a pair. It last appeared at auction in 2007, when it sold at Christie’s Hong Kong together with its sister bowl for nearly HK$51 million. Nineteen years later, this bowl returned to the same saleroom on its own, opening at HK$12 million. After 11 bids, it was hammered down to a telephone bidder using paddle 8199, represented by Chi‑fan Tsang.
The same client also picked up a Yongzheng flambé‑glazed ewer (lot 815) for HK$15.14 million.
Chi-fan Tsang won the lot for her client, paddle 8199
The buyer, paddle 8199, also purchased a Yongzheng flambé‑glazed ewer at the same sale
Many details of the design carry auspicious meanings, suggesting the bowl may have been made to celebrate an imperial birthday.
Here, the enamelling starts low on the exterior, climbs up the wall, and slips over the rim into the interior. This playful, continuous device, known as guozhihua (“flowering branch over the rim”), is linked in Qing texts to a “branch passing over the wall” – a phrase that sounds like “lasting order” and conveys a wish for peace and good government.
In the tradition of China, the peach tree has long been regarded as sacred – its wood used for apotropaic charms – while the fruit itself symbolises longevity. A cluster of six peaches forms a rebus for retaining or extending life.
A red bat stands for good fortune, and five bats together represent the Five Blessings: long life, health, wealth, love of virtue, and a peaceful death. When bats are shown upside down, the word for “upside down” is a homophone of “arrived”, turning the motif into a visual pun that announces happiness has arrived.
Lot 820 | A fine and very rare pair of celadon-ground famille rose 'pheasant and deer' vases | The Ai Lian Tang Collection
Qianlong six-character seal marks in underglaze blue and of the period (1736-1795)
Height: 30.4 and 30 cm
Provenance:
- The Liddell Collection, no. 180
- Collection of Mrs. Charles Oswald Liddell, Pinehurst, North Carolina
- Sold at Sotheby’s Hong Kong, 20-21 May 1980, lot 256
- Chang Foundation, Taipei, acquired before 1996
Estimate: HK$9,000,000 - 13,000,000
Hammer Price: HK$22,000,000
Sold: HK$27,340,000 (US$3.5 million)
The vase originally came from the collection of Captain Charles Oswald Liddell, who ran the Shanghai firm Liddell Bros. & Co. with his brother in the late 19th century. Both were avid collectors of Chinese art and bought large numbers of former imperial objects directly from late‑Qing powerbrokers such as Prince Qing Yikuang, the dynasty’s last regent, and a senior adviser to Li Hongzhang.
Auctioneer Liang‑lin Chen opened bidding on the present piece at HK$8.5 million, drawing interest from at least two telephone bidders and three bidders in the room. After around 14 bids, it hammered at HK$22 million, well above its estimate. It was secured for HK$27.34 million with fees by a client on the telephone using paddle 8200, represented by Chi‑Fan Tsang.
The vessel combines five features rarely seen together: a quatrefoil form, openwork phoenix‑head handles, a pale celadon glaze, gilt outlines, and famille‑rose cartouches. A related pale‑green “longevity” vase with kui‑dragon handles in the Taipei Palace Museum shares the ground colour and gilding but lacks famille‑rose panels, while a pea‑green jar in the Tianjin Museum has cartouches but encloses blue‑and‑white dragon decoration instead.
In terms of shape, the closest comparables are quatrefoil zun vases in London’s Victoria and Albert Museum and in the collection of Hong Kong collector Alan Chuang Shaw‑swee, although those examples are decorated with flowers of the four seasons.
Auctioneer Liang-lin Chen
Other Highlight Lots:
Lot 813 | A fine and rare moulded peachbloom-glazed ‘chrysanthemum’ vase | The Ai Lian Tang Collection
Kangxi six-character mark in underglaze blue and of the period (1662-1722)
Height: 21.2 cm
Provenance:
- Chang Foundation, Taipei, acquired before 1990
Estimate: HK$4,500,000 - 6,500,000
Hammer Price: HK$14,000,000
Sold: HK$17,580,000
Lot 815 | A fine and superb flambé-glazed ewer | The Ai Lian Tang Collection
Yongzheng four-character incised seal mark and of the period (1723-1735)
Height: 31.2 cm
Provenance:
- Sold at Sotheby's Hong Kong, 21 May 1979, lot 101
- Chang Foundation, Taipei, acquired before 1990
Estimate: HK$2,600,000 - 4,000,000
Hammer Price: HK$12,000,000
Sold: HK$15,140,000
Lot 808 | An important and exceptionally rare ming yellow-ground blue and white ‘pomegranate’ dish
Chenghua six-character mark in underglaze blue in a line and of the period (1465-1487)
Diameter: 29.5 cm
Provenance:
- Mrs. Otto Harriman (1903-1970) collection
- Offered at Sotheby’s Hong Kong, 31 October 1974, lot 104
- Collection of Edward T. Chow (1910-1980)
- Sold at Sotheby’s Hong Kong, The Edward T. Chow Collection- Part One: Ming and Qing Porcelain, 25 November 1980, lot 40
- Collection of T.Y. Chao (1912-1999)
- Sold at Sotheby's Hong Kong, The T.Y. Chao Private and Family Trust Collections of Important Chinese Ceramics & Jade Carvings: Part II, 19 May 1987, lot 256
- Chang Foundation, Taipei, acquired before 1990
Estimate: HK$4,500,000 - 6,500,000
Hammer Price: HK$12,000,000
Sold: HK$15,140,000
Lot 807 | A fine and rare large blue and white ‘three friends of winter’ bowl | The Ai Lian Tang Collection
Xuande six-character mark in underglaze blue in a line and of the period (1426-1435)
Diameter: 28 cm
Provenance:
- Sold at Sotheby’s Hong Kong, 13 November 1990, lot 130
- The Property of a Gentleman; sold at Christie’s Hong Kong, 26 April 2004, lot 955
Estimate: HK$4,000,000 - 6,000,000
Hammer Price: HK$11,500,000
Sold: HK$14,530,000
Lot 809 | A very rare blue and white ‘dragon’ wine ewer and cover | The Ai Lian Tang Collection
Zhengde four-character mark in underglaze blue within a double circle and of the period (1506-1521)
Height: 15.7 cm
Provenance:
- Chang Foundation, Taipei, acquired before 1990
Estimate: HK$HK$2,000,000 - 4,000,000
Hammer Price: HK$10,000,000
Sold: HK$12,700,000
Lot 805 | A highly important and rare copper-red decorated ‘camellia, prunus and bamboo’ kendi | The Ai Lian Tang Collection
Hongwu period (1368-1398)
Height: 13.5 cm
Provenance:
- Masterpieces of East Asian Ceramic Art from A Private Collection; sold at Sotheby's London, 7 June 2000, lot 117
Estimate: HK$4,000,000 - 6,500,000
Hammer Price: HK$9,500,000
Sold: HK$12,065,000
Lot 803 | A magnificent and extremely rare cizhou sgraffito 'peony' jar | The Ai Lian Tang Collection
Northern Song dynasty (960-1127)
Height: 27.6 cm
Provenance:
- Toguri Museum of Art Collection, Tokyo
- Sold at Sotheby's London, 100 Selected Chinese and Korean Ceramics from The Toguri Collection, 9 June 2004, lot 62 (cover lot)
Estimate: HK$5,500,000 - 6,500,000
Hammer Price: HK$9,200,000
Sold: HK$11,684,000
Lot 806 | A blue and white 'fruit' ewer, zhihu | The Ai Lian Tang Collection
Yongle period (1403-1425)
Height: 26 cm
Provenance:
- Chang Foundation, Taipei, acquired before 1990
Estimate: HK$2,500,000 - 4,000,000
Hammer Price: HK$7,000,000
Sold: HK$8,890,000
Lot 818 | A fine and exceptionally rare blue and white ‘nine dragon’ vase | The Ai Lian Tang Collection
Qianlong six-character seal mark in underglaze blue and of the period (1736-1795)
Height: 35.7 cm
Provenance:
- The Property of an English Collector; sold at Christie’s London, 11 July 2006, lot 142
Estimate: HK$5,000,000 - 6,500,000
Hammer Price: HK$7,000,000
Sold: HK$8,890,000
Lot 812 | A fine coral-ground famille verte 'floral' bowl | The Ai Lian Tang Collection
Kangxi four-character yuzhi mark in underglaze blue within a double square and of the period (1662-1722)
Diameter: 10.8 cm
Provenance:
- Sold at Sotheby's Hong Kong, 17 May 1989, lot 156
Estimate: HK$1,800,000 - 2,500,000
Hammer Price: HK$4,200,000
Sold: HK$5,334,000
Lot 814 | A fine red-glazed vase, yuhuchunping | The Ai Lian Tang Collection
Yongzheng six-character mark in underglaze blue within a double circle and of the period (1723-1735)
Height: 23.5 cm
Provenance:
- Robert Chang (1927-2024) Collection
- Sold at Christie’s Hong Kong, Important Chinese Ceramics from the Robert Chang Collection, 31 October 2000, lot 824
Estimate: HK$500,000 - 800,000
Hammer Price: HK$4,000,000
Sold: HK$5,080,000
Lot 801 | A ding persimmon-glazed hexafoil bowl | The Ai Lian Tang Collection
Northern Song dynasty (960-1127)
Diameter: 20.1 cm
Provenance:
- Chang Foundation, Taipei, prior to 1990
Estimate: HK$1,200,000 - 1,800,000
Hammer Price: HK$3,200,000
Sold: HK$4,064,000
Lot 819 | A fine and very rare green-enamelled and famille rose ‘dragon fish’-handled bottle vase | The Ai Lian Tang Collection
Qianlong six-character seal mark in iron red and of the period (1736-1795)
Height: 23.3 cm
Provenance:
- Collection of Edward T. Chow (1910-1980)
- Sold at Sotheby’s Hong Kong, The Edward T. Chow Collection- Part One, 25 November 1980, lot 175
- Property from a Private Collection; sold at Sotheby’s Hong Kong, 30 April 1996, lot 501
Estimate: HK$800,000 - 1,200,000
Hammer Price: HK$2,400,000
Sold: HK$3,048,000
Auction Details:
Auction House: Christie's Hong Kong
Sale: The Ai Lian Tang Collection - 800 Years of Chinese Ceramics
Date: 30 April 2026
Number of Lots: 20
Sold: 20
Sale Rate: 100%
Sale Total: HK$376,796,500 (US$48 million)