Lot 28. A rare red kinrande stembowl with golden lotus, Ming Dynasty, Jiajing Period (1522-1566); diameter 13.3 cm., 5 1/4  in.  Estimate 1,000,000 - 1,500,000 HKD. Unsold. Courtesy Sotheby's

the wide hemispherical bowl resting on a narrow tubular stem slightly splaying towards the base, completely overglazed around the exterior with a deep iron-red enamel and finely applied in the kinrande style with a golden lotus scroll, the four large pointed blooms depicted in silhouette with details incised with a fine point through the gold leaf to appear in red, evenly spaced within a dense foliage above a border of petal lappets, the stem originally applied with a similar gold decoration, now rubbed, between double-line golden fillets, the interior of the bowl and of the stem left white with some of the smoky glaze wiped inside the footring

LITTERATURE: Regina Krahl, Chinese Ceramics from the Meiyintang Collection, London, 1994-2010, vol. 4, no. 1684.

NOTE: Kinrande (‘gold brocade work’) is a Japanese term for silhouette decoration applied in leaf gold, which was practised for a short period in the Jiajing reign. The fluid designs are created through application of a liquid adhesive with a brush, to which the leaf gold would adhere. Details are then incised through the gold. Kinrande porcelains were particularly treasured in Japan, but were also the pride of early Kunstkammer collections throughout Europe, often lavishly adorned with precious metal mounts; see the exhibition catalogue Encompassing the Globe. Portugal and the World in the 16th and 17th Centuries, Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, Washington, D.C., 2007, cat. nos. P 64-6.

Kinrande stem bowls are very rare. A similar piece, with the gold much rubbed, is in the British Museum, London, from the Harry Oppenheim collection, see Jessica Harrison-Hall, Ming Ceramics in the British Museum, London, 2001, no. 9: 68.

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