A pair of Chinese blue and white dishes, recognized by bidders as a stunning example of the bleu de Huế porcelain, recently sold for an astonishing £20,500 at Acreman St Auctioneers in Sherborne, Dorset on January 26th. The dishes, sold together with a chipped Cantonese dish of little value, were initially expected to fetch just £100-150, however, the winning bid came online via thesaleroom.com.
Recently, Vietnamese buyers have been sending the best works of art from the Nguyen (1802-1945) dynasties to unchartered territory. A specific area of collecting focus is the bleu de Huế porcelain, which was made in China to Vietnamese designs. Often, these pieces are named after Huế, the Nguyen capital and site of the Forbidden Purple City and include the bespoke marks of royal family members and court officials. An influential exhibition titled “Signed Porcelains from the Lê, Trinh and Nguyen Dynasties” was held at the Museum of Royal Antiques of Hue in 2018, which showcased the beauty and significance of these items.
The larger of the two pieces sold in Dorset measured 4½in (11cm) across and was decorated to the bowl and the underside with two dragons facing the flaming pearl among waves and clouds. It had both a four-character mark in blue and two incised characters. The slightly damaged smaller dish, decorated with the mythical kylin against a similar ground, had a different four-character mark. Both had the protective silver rims of the type that became popular on Vietnamese porcelain in the late 19th century.
These beautiful and valuable pieces have made their way to Europe over the years under colonial rule. From the aftermath of the Sino-French War in 1884-85 until the last months of the Second World War, the Nguyen emperors only ruled nominally as heads of state of the French protectorates.
Recently, extraordinary sums have been achieved for Nguyen bleu de Huế porcelain in both France and Ireland. In November 2021, a 6½in (16cm) plate finely decorated with a dragon, a qilin, and the khanh (happiness) and tho (longevity) symbols sold for an incredible €140,000 (£127,300) at Adam’s in Dublin. The four-character mark to the reverse read khánh xuân thị tả (Eternal Spring, Left Palace), which is a reference to a residence owned by the Trinh clan, the family that dominated the royal court in the Later Le period.
