Lot 9. A Fine and Very Rare Copper-Red Dish, Mark and Period of Xuande (1426-1435); 22 cm., 8 5/8  in. Estimate 7,200,000 - 10,000,000 HKD (710,889 — 987,346 EUR). Lot sold 8,440,000 HKD (833,320 EUR). Photo Sotheby's

the rounded sides rising from a recessed centre marked with a slight ridge, supported on a tapered undercut foot and a convex base, masterfully applied evenly overall with a quintessential tone of deep sacrifical-red glaze suffused with tiny darker specks, pooling to a dark crimson tone around the ridge on the interior and thinning to white towards the rim and the foot, becoming a transparent glaze slightly tinged with green just above the footring, the white base inscribed in underglaze blue with a six-character reign mark within a double ring

PROVENANCE: Collection of R.H.R. Palmer (1898-1970), no. 470.
Sotheby’s London, 28th May 1968, lot 98.

EXHIBITED: Monochrome Porcelain of the Ming and Manchu Dynasties, Oriental Ceramic Society, London, 1948, cat. no. 126, illustrated pl. IV.
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. 109.

LITTERATURE: Regina Krahl, Chinese Ceramics from the Meiyintang Collection, London, 1994-2010, vol. 2, no. 656.

Copper-red: A Triumph of the Imperial Potters
Regina Krahl

This dish is a rare, large example with a copper-red glaze and a Xuande reign mark, where the glaze colour has been particularly successful. Monochrome copper-red glazes were perfected during the Yongle and Xuande reigns, but the large number of discarded sherds at the Jingdezhen kiln sites impressively highlights the difficulties experienced by even the highly accomplished imperial potters of that time to achieve satisfactory results. After the Xuande reign, the copper pigment was therefore almost completely abandoned until it was revived on a grand scale, but with less striking results, in the Kangxi period of the Qing dynasty.

While both the Yongle and Xuande strata of the waste heaps of the imperial kiln site have brought to light many examples of copper-red pieces that did not meet the high standards of quality control, extant heirloom examples of either period are extremely rare; for discarded copper-red vessels of the Yongle and Xuande reigns see Jingdezhen chutu Mingdai yuyao ciqi[Porcelains from the Ming imperial kilns excavated at Jingdezhen], Beijing, 2009, cat. nos. 18-30 and 44-9, and for buried heaps of copper-red sherds, ibid., p.14, figs. 9 and 10.

A discarded example of a similar copper-red glazed dish of Xuande mark and period, with a fine, deep red glaze on the inside, but a broad band at the rim remaining white, and uneven white patches on the outside, was included in the exhibition 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. 69 (fig. 1). Two other red dishes of Xuande mark and period, also discarded at the kiln site, one perhaps somewhat dark, the other somewhat pale, were included in the exhibition Jingdezhen Zhushan chutu Yongle guanyao ciqi [Yongle Imperial porcelain excavated at Zhushan, Jingdezhen], Capital Museum, Beijing, 2007, cat. nos. 227 and 228, together with a similar monochrome red dish from the Yongle stratum with a deep red glaze, but a wide plain white rim area, cat. no. 31.

Copper-red dish, mark and period of Xuande. Excavated from the Ming imperial kiln site at Jingdezhen. After: 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. 69

A somewhat smaller successfully fired copper-red dish of Xuande mark and period in the National Palace Museum, Taiwan, was included in the Museum’s exhibition 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. 168 (fig. 2).

Copper-red dish impressed with a pair of dragons, mark and period of Xuande, National Palace Museum, Taipei. After: 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. 168 

Sotheby's. The Meiyintang Collection, Part V - An Important Selection of Imperial Chinese Porcelains. Hong Kong | 08 avr. 2013