Lot 12. A Well-Painted Blue and White Lobed Bowl, Mark and Period of Xuande (1426-1435); 22.5 cm, 8 7/8 in. Estimate 3,000,000-5,000,000 HKD. Lot sold 8,420,000 HKD (1,081,802 USD). Photo Sotheby's

of conical form with a six-lobed rim supported on a short slightly tapered foot, the interior centred with a medallion containing a flowering peach branch, surrounded by three sprigs of lotus flowers alternating with sprays of tree peony, chrysanthemum, and herbaceous peony, all beneath a row of small floral sprigs at the rim, the exterior painted with six fruit sprays comprising peach, cherry, loquat, pomegranate, grape, and lychee, alternating with six small floral sprays below including camellia, chrysanthemum, lotus, rose, and peony, the foot further encircled by a 'classic' scroll, the base inscribed with a six-character reign mark within double rings.

Provenance: Collection of K. L. Dawes.
Collection of John F. Woodthorpe.
Collection of Frederick M. Mayer.
Christie's London, 24th June 1974, lot 90.

Exhibited: Chinese Blue and White Porcelain: 14th to 19th Centuries, The Oriental Ceramic Society at The Arts Council Gallery, London, 1953-4, cat. no. 76 (illustrated).
Chinese Ceramics from the Meiyintang Collection, The British Museum, London, 1994.
Evolution to Perfection. Chinese Ceramics from the Meiyintang Collection/Evolution vers la perfection. Céramiques de Chine de la Collection Meiyintang, Sporting d'Hiver, Monte Carlo, 1996, cat. no. 115.

Literature: J.F. Woodthorpe, 'A Few Pieces of Chinese Porcelain', The Antique Collector, vol. XXIII, no. 3, June 1952, p. 123, fig. 2.
F. Davis, 'A Page for Collectors. Blue-and-White', The Illustrated London News, 1st January 1954, p. 92, fig. 2.
Regina Krahl, Chinese Ceramics from the Meiyintang Collection, London, 1994-2010, vol. 2, no. 671.

Note: This elegant conical shape with faint rim indentations would seem to have been inspired by Song dynasty white wares and was used at Jingdezhen only in the Yongle and Xuande reigns, as well as for later copies of these early Ming patterns. Besides blue-and-white examples, bowls of this shape were also created in various monochrome glazes at Jingdezhen, but seem to have been mostly destroyed at the kiln site.

A bowl of this design from the Qing court collection in the Palace Museum, Beijing, is illustrated in Geng Baochang, ed., Gugong Bowuyuan cang Ming chu qinghua ci [Early Ming blue and white porcelain in the Palace Museum], Beijing, 2002, vol. 2, pl. 146, together with a Kangxi copy with a spurious Xuande reign mark, pl. 179; two Xuande bowls of this design in the National Palace Museum, Taiwan, were included in the Museum's exhibitions Mingdai Xuande guanyao jinghua tezhan tulu/Catalogue of the Special Exhibition of Selected Hsüan-te Imperial Porcelains of the Ming Dynasty, Taipei, 1998, cat. no. 62, and Ming Xuande ciqi tezhan mulu/Catalogue of a Special Exhibition of Hsuan-te Period Porcelain, Taipei, 1980, cat. no. 36, the latter together with another Qing copy of similar design, cat. no. 35; and a fourth bowl in Taiwan, probably unmarked and predating the Xuande examples, was included in the exhibition Mingdai chunian ciqi tezhan mulu/Catalogue of a Special Exhibition of Early Ming Period Porcelain, Taipei, 1982, cat. no. 20. Another bowl of Xuande mark and period in the Capital Museum, Beijing, is published in Shoudu Bowuguan cang ci xuan [Selection of porcelains from the Capital Museum], Beijing, 1991, pl. 97; and one in the Shanghai Museum in Lu Minghua, Shanghai Bowuguan zangpin yanjiu daxi/Studies of the Shanghai Museum Collections : A Series of Monographs. Mingdai guanyao ciqi [Ming imperial porcelain], Shanghai, 2007, pl. 3-34.

Sotheby's. The Meiyintang Collection, Part II - An Important Selection of Chinese Porcelains, Hong Kong 5 october 2011