Lot 32. A  rare copper-red 'floral' bowl, Ming dynasty, Hongwu period (1368-1398). Diameter 21.3 cm. Estimate 150,000 - 300,000 GBP. Lot Sold 180,000 GBP. © Sotheby's 2024

Provenance: Collection of Lord Humphrey Trevelyan (1905-1985), G.C.M.G., C.I.E., O.B.E..
Collection of Hon. Kate Trevelyan (b. 1943).

Literature: John Addis, 'A Group of Underglaze Red', Transactions of The Oriental Ceramic Society, vol. 31, London, 1957-1958, pl. 1.a.
Catalogue of Late Yuan and Ming Ceramics in the British Museum, London, 2001, pl. 2:12 (fig. 1).

Exhibited: British Museum, London (on loan).

Note: Well potted and embellished with vivid red decoration, this exceptional bowl is one the highest quality examples of its type still extant, devoid of the dark black spots and blurring so often found on copper red pieces. Capable of producing the most dazzling of designs yet notoriously difficult to control in firing, copper red pigments were likely both adored and detested by the imperial potters of Jingdezhen. Although porcelain decorated in underglaze red was produced in large quantities – particularly in the Hongwu period – the temperamental nature of the medium and its very low success rate led the technique to be largely abandoned after the Xuande period. 

Compare a related bowl preserved in the Palace Museum, Beijing, of similar design but for a more common chrysanthemum scroll and lotus roundel to the interior, illustrated in Imperial Porcelains from the Reigns of Hongwu and Yongle in the Ming Dynasty, Beijing, 2015, cat. no. 7, alongside a misfired underglaze blue example excavated from the Hongwu stratum at Dongmentou, Jingdezhen in 1994, cat. no. 8; another, of the same conventional design, preserved in the Palace Museum, Taipei, exhibited in Mingdai chunian ciqi tezhan [Special exhibition of Early Ming porcelain], Taipei, 1982, cat. no. 51; and two more, mounted with gilt metal rims, in the Shanghai Museum, illustrated in Lu Minghua, Mingdai guanyao ciqi [Ming imperial porcelain], Shanghai, 2007, pls 1-1 and 4-8.

Bowls of this form were produced in a variety of related floral designs but, to date, no other examples of this type are known – featuring a chrysanthemum in the centre surrounded by four detached sprays of different species. Compare two closely related examples featuring detached sprays around a central lotus: one illustrated in Mayuyama, Seventy Years, vol. I, Tokyo, 1976, pl. 730; the other sold in our Hong Kong rooms, 24th November 1981, lot 132. Compare also the bowl from the Hosokawa Collection, with similar detached flower sprays to the exterior, illustrated in Sekai Toji Zenshu / Ceramic Art of the World, vol. 14, Tokyo, 1976, pls 4 and 5.

Famed diplomat and author, Sir Humphrey Trevelyan (1905-1985) was an active member of the foreign service until his retirement in 1965. Stationed as chargé d’affaires in Beijing from 1953 - 1955, Trevelyan soon built up a collection of Chinese works of art which, at its height, included a number of fine copper-red pieces, including two copper-red yuhuchun vases, one of which was sold in these rooms, 2nd April 1974, lot 193, and again at Christie’s New York, 22nd March 2019, lot 1624.