A Large White-Glazed Incised Lotus Jar and Cover. Ming Dynasty, 15th Century. Photo Sotheby's

of broad ovoid form with a clear luting line around its widest part, the rounded sides rising from a thick rounded footring and concave base to a high shoulder and a short tapered neck, surmounted by a domed cover with a slightly everted rim and a raised roundel at the top supporting a pointed knop, faintly incised around the body with a large-scale lotus scroll between two borders of petal lappets collaring the neck and skirting the foot, the jar and cover applied overall with a thick transparent glaze, save for the base left unglazed and fired to a yellowish-white tone with bright orange specks; overall height 46 cm., 18 1/8 in. Estimation: 700,000 - 900,000 HKD

PROVENANCE: Sotheby’s Hong Kong, 31st October 1995, lot 360.

LITTERATURE: Regina Krahl, Chinese Ceramics from the Meiyintang Collection, London, 1994-2010, vol. 4, no. 1633.

NOTE DE CATALOGUE: It is highly unusual to find a large white jar of this date with an incised lotus design. A larger undecorated jar and cover, recovered from the Xuande stratum (AD 1426-35) of the Ming imperial kiln site, is published in Imperial porcelain of the Yongle and Xuande Periods Excavated from the Site of the Ming Imperial Factory at Jingdezhen, Hong Kong Museum of Art, Hong Kong, 1989, cat. no. 65.

Sotheby's. The Meiyintang Collection, Part IV - An Important Selection of Imperial Chinese Porcelains. Hong Kong | 09 oct. 2012 www.sothebys.com