Lot 32. An outstanding and rare blue and white barbed dish, Ming dynasty, Yongle period (1403-1424). Diameter 19.3 cm. Estimate 80,000 - 120,000 GBP. Lot Sold 480,000 GBP. © Sotheby's 2024

the reverse of the dish bears the ‘Shah Abbas’ mark in Arabic-script.

Provenance: Collection of Shah Abbas (1588-1629).
Acquired in Europe by the father of the present owner in the 1960s.

Literature: John Pope, Chinese Porcelains from the Ardebil Shrine, Washington, 1956, pl. 29.271.

Note: Glowing in a rich palette of cobalt blue, the present dish is an exquisite example of the finest porcelain produced in the early Ming dynasty. Wares from this vibrant period of restoration, expansion and technical progress are among the most important and desirable pieces ever produced and have been treasured in important collections for centuries.

This exemplary pi29ece is a member of a rare and fascinating group of small dishes – each just under twenty centimetres in diameter – with bold foliate rims, cavetto-moulded wells, vibrant floral decoration, and neatly trimmed foot-rings. Combining the free-spirited designs and sharp foliate rims of yesteryear with the rich blue tone and tasteful treatment of negative space typical of the finest Ming wares, this remarkable group were among the exemplary wares produced under new imperial supervision at the porcelain kilns of Jingdezhen during the Yongle reign (1403-1424).

In form and design, these small Yongle dishes appear to be derived from cup stands decorated with copper red and, more rarely, underglaze blue during the Hongwu period (1368-1398). Indeed, while these dishes lack the trembleuse rim once used to accommodate a cup, some examples make a conspicuous nod to this earlier type by incorporating a central medallion into their design: compare a related dish featuring a central lotus roundel surrounded by a key-fret border, illustrated in The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum: Blue and White Porcelain with Underglazed Red (I), Hong Kong, 2000, pl. 82. In contrast, lacking a formal circular motif and with a seamless transition between a stylised lotus centre and the scrolling lingzhi beyond, the present design is firmly rooted in the ordered balanced beauty of the Yongle visual canon. Compare another dish of this form without a central roundel, decorated with a grape vine and lingzhi scrolls, excavated from the Yongle stratum at Jingdezhen in 1994 in Liang Sui (ed.), Yuan’s and Ming’s Imperial Porcelains Unearthed from Jingdezhen, Beijing, 1999, pl. 61.

Compare a very similar dish in the Palace Museum, Beijing, illustrated in The Complete Collection, op. cit., pl. 81. See also two other dishes of this rare form bearing Ardabil waqf marks, the first, illustrated alongside the present lot in John Pope, Chinese Porcelains from the Ardebil Shrine, Washington, 1956, pl. 29.274, and sold in these rooms, 12th December 1978, lot 381 (fig. 1) and the second, sold on 1st November 2023, lot 2, from the same collection as the present lot; and three others from important early collections preserved in the British Museum, London: one from the collection of Sir Percival David, acc. no. PDF,B.683; another from the collection of Henry J. Oppenheim, acc. no. 1947,0712.199; and a third example from the collection of Sir John Addis, acc. no. 1975,1028.11.

Although some pieces may have entered the Shah’s collection directly from China, coming to Iran across the vast Silk Road by land and sea, many of the finest pieces – such as the present dish – show signs of previous ownership and must have been given to the Shah before or at the time of the donation in 1611. Two small holes drilled into the foot of the present dish, for example, once served as an ownership mark of another great collection now lost to history. Similar two-dot marks also appear on a number of Ming dishes that made their way to the Ottoman court, preserved in the Topkapi Saray Museum, Istanbul, including a 15th century blue-and-white dish and seven celadon pieces; see Nurdan Erbahar, “Non-Chinese Marks and Inscriptions”, In Regina Krahl, Chinese Ceramics in the Topkapi Saray Museum, Istanbul, London, 1986, pp 125-138.