Lot 3848. A fine and rare blue and white 'fruit' bowl, mark and period of Xuande (1426-1435); 29.8 cm. Lot Sold 7,080,000 HKD (Estimate 5,000,000 - 10,000,000 HKD) © Sotheby's 2024

Provenance: Acquired by Richard Marchant in England in the 1960s.

Note: Painted in vibrant tones of cobalt, the fruit motif on this bowl can be considered one of the most successful patterns of the early Ming dynasty and belongs to the central repertoire of the Xuande Imperial kilns. The present example is particularly remarkable for the delicate rendering of fruits with broad washes of cobalt and fine brushstrokes. Bowls with such elegant motifs display the newly awakened interest in fine blue and white porcelain at the Xuande court. It is in this period, that porcelain catered mostly for the imperial family, hence vessels reflect in both size and taste the aesthetic ideals of the period.

Such high quality porcelain, inscribed with the Xuande reign mark, was made exclusively at the imperial kilns in Jingdezhen, which were under the strict supervision of palace eunuchs and local officials. The Imperial Porcelain Bureau was established in Jingdezhen in the second year of Hongwu ( 1369), although officials and eunuchs were not sent there to supervise production until the Xuande reign. The court would commission wares with decorations based on  guanyang  (official designs) or  huaben  (model drawings). Official records of porcelain production are limited and do not mention this particular mixed fruit design. Only three orders for porcelain are recorded: one in the first year of Hongxi, corresponding to 1424, and the second and third in the fifth and eighth year of Xuande, corresponding to 1430 and 1433 respectively. The large quantity of extant porcelains with Xuande marks and of the period, as well as the impressive number of shards recovered at the imperial kiln site at Zhushan, Jingdezhen, clearly show that a large quantity of wares made in the period did not enter into the official records . A fragmentary bowl of this pattern excavated from the waste heaps of the Ming imperial kilns in Jingdezhen is illustrated in Lu Minghua,  Mingdai guanyao ciqi  [Ming imperial porcelain], Shanghai, 2007, pl. 3-121.

A bowl of this type painted with fruit, in the Palace Museum, Taipei, was included in the Museum's  Special Exhibition of Selected Hsüan-te Imperial Porcelains of the Ming Dynasty , Taipei, 1998, cat. no. 47; one from the collection of Sir Percival David, now in the British Museum, London, is illustrated in  Oriental Ceramics. The World's Great Collections , vol. 6, Tokyo, 1980, pl. 98; and another in the Freer Gallery of Art, Washington DC, was included in the exhibition  Ming Porcelains in the Freer Gallery of Art , Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC, 1953, pl. 10. 

A further bowl of this design from numerous notable private collections including the Meiyintang Collection, and illustrated in Regina Krahl,  Chinese Ceramics from the Meiyintang Collection , vol. 4, London, 2010, pl. 1655, was sold three times in our London rooms, and most recently in these rooms, 5th October 2011, lot 13; another from the collection of Stephen Junkunc III, was sold in our New York rooms, 22nd March 1995, lot 234; and a third from the Toguri collection, illustrated in  Min Shin no bijutsu  [The Art of Ming and Qing], Tokyo, 1982, pl. 6, was sold in our London rooms, 9th June 2004, lot 16; and a further example in the Tianminlou Collection, sold in these rooms, 3rd April 2019 , lot 5.

This bowl's cobalt blue color is bright and radiant, and its auspicious fruit pattern is one of the best blue and white works in the early Ming Dynasty. It belongs to the Xuande imperial kiln. The delicate depiction of broken branches and auspicious fruits, and the loose and relaxed brushstrokes of the cobalt material make this bowl stand out. The vessel is round in shape and is decorated with auspicious fruits. The branches and leaves are dynamic, adding to its lifelike appearance. This type of Xuande bowl was made as a tribute to the royal family, so it was made with the utmost perfection and beauty in mind, regardless of size or interest, to please the court

Such exquisitely crafted porcelain, bearing the Xuande year mark, was fired at the imperial kiln in Jingdezhen under the careful supervision of palace eunuchs and local officials. In the second year of Hongwu (1369), an imperial wares factory was established in Jingdezhen. By the time Xuande arrived, eunuchs and officials were stationed here to supervise kiln affairs. When porcelain was made according to the imperial edict, the decorations had to be based on official models or drawings. There are limited records of official porcelain production, and there is no mention of such auspicious fruit combinations. There are only three batches of recorded examples, one in the first year of Hongxi (reigned only ten months), the second in the fifth year of Xuande, and the third in the eighth year of Xuande. There are a large number of extant porcelains dating from the Xuande era, and numerous pieces of porcelain from the Zhushan imperial kiln site in Jingdezhen. From this, we can infer that Xuande produced a wide variety of porcelains, but not all of them have been recorded in official records. Compare the remaining artifacts unearthed from the imperial kilns of the Ming Dynasty in Jingdezhen, with the same decoration, published in Lu Minghua, "Ming Dynasty Official Kiln Porcelain", Shanghai, 2007, plate 3-121.

A bowl with auspicious fruit patterns in the collection of the National Palace Museum in Taipei belongs to this category and is included in the "Special Exhibition of the Highlights of the Xuande Official Kilns of the Ming Dynasty", Taipei, 1998, No. 47. Another example, originally from Sir David David's collection and now in the collection of the British Museum in London, is published in "The Great View of Oriental Ceramics", Volume 6, Tokyo, 1980, Plate 98. Another example, in the Freer Gallery of Art, Washington, shown in Ming Porcelains in the Freer Gallery of Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, 1953, plate 10.

There is still a similar bowl, passed down to the collection of Meiyintang and other famous artists, and recorded in Kang Ruijun, "Meiyintang Chinese Ceramics", Volume 4, London, 2010, plate 1655. It was sold to Sotheby's in London three times, and later again Sold at Sotheby's Hong Kong on 5 October 2011, lot 13. Stephen. An example from the collection of John Ken III was sold at Sotheby's New York on March 22, 1995, lot 234. There is also a bowl in Toguri's collection, published in "Art of the Ming and Qing Dynasties", Tokyo, 1982, plate 6, sold at Sotheby's London, June 9, 2004, lot 16. You can also refer to this example from the old collection of Tian Min Building, sold at Sotheby's Hong Kong on April 3, 2019, lot 5.