A large carved Ming-style white-glazed dish, 18th century

The large dish with rounded flared sides, supported on a short tapering foot ring, the interior carved in the centre with two birds perched on a blossoming tree amidst bamboo, the cavetto carved with a continuous foliate lotus scroll below the rim with a key-fret border, the undersides similarly carved with a lotus scroll between a key-fret and classic scroll borders, covered with a transparent pale blue glaze stopping short of the foot ring, box. 38.9cm (15¼in) diam. (2). Estimate: £8,000 - 12,000 - Unsold

Provenance: K.W.Fong Collection, circa 1998
J. Abraham Cohen Collection, New York

The dish is carved and glazed after early Ming Dynasty examples, for a slightly smaller Xuande dish with rounded walls, see Chinese Ceramics in the Idemitsu Collection, Tokyo, 1987, pl.161.

Bonhams. Fine Chinese Art, 14 May 2009. New Bond Street www.bonhams.com