Lot 3018. A fine blue and white 'flower scroll' dish, Ming dynasty, Yongle period 1403-1424); 33.7 cm, 13 1/4  in. Estimate 3,500,000 - 4,500,000 HKD. Lot sold 5,560,000 HKD. Photo: Sotheby's

well potted with rounded sides divided into twelve bracket foliations, rising from a short tapered foot to a barbed everted rim, painted in vivid tones of cobalt-blue accented with 'heaping and piling', the slightly recessed interior centred with a large cusped medallion of lotus, surrounded by blooms of camellia, lotus, chrysanthemum, mallow and dianthus borne on foliate scrolls within a barbed border, further encircled around the cavetto by detached sprays of chrysanthemum, pomegranate, hibiscus, peony, morning glory and lotus, each repeated twice and paired across the dish, except for the lotus matched with another blossom, below a border of crested waves on the the rim, the exterior painted with similar detached floral sprays within double-line borders, the base and beveled footring left unglazed

PROVENANCE: Spink & Son, London, June 1967.
Collection of Mr. F. Gordon and Mrs. Elizabeth Hunter Morrill.
Doyle's New York, 16th September 2003, lot 81.

EXHIBITED: Recent acquisitions, S. Marchant & Son, London, 2004, no. 1.
Ming Porcelain, Marchant, London, 2009, no. 2.

NOTE: The present dish is a fine example of the technical developments achieved by the early Ming dynasty. Yongle porcelains are characterised by their particularly deep blue cobalt, which fired to a dark deep-blue in some parts and pale blue in others. This silvery-black and crystal-like separation of colours is known as the 'heaped and piled' effect, and the intensity of tones was highlighted by the finely potted white body of the porcelain clay.

One of the decorative innovations of early fifteenth-century wares was the use of separate floral sprays or bunches of flowers in the cavettos instead of the continuous scroll. The heavy wreath of lotus or peony found on 14th century dishes gave way to more varied series of formalised motifs. Twelve flower sprays consisting of two sets were commonly repeated in order so that each flower was diametrically opposite its pair. With each flower spray encircled by a circular stem with leaves, the present dish is characteristic of the delicate variety that occurred within Yongle design schemes.

A similar dish in the Topkapi Saray Museum, Istanbul, is illustrated in Regina Krahl, Chinese Ceramics in the Topkapi Saray Museum, Istanbul, vol. II, London, 1986, pl. 601; another in the Percival David Foundation is published in Oriental Ceramics. The World's Great Collections, 1982, vol. 6, no. 76; one in the National Palace Museum, Taipei, was included in the Special Exhibition of Early Ming Porcelains, National Palace Museum, Taipei, 1982, cat. no. 38, a fourth is published in Mayuyama. Seventy Years, vol. 1, Tokyo, 1976, pl. 753; other dishes of this design include two in the Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities, Stockholm, illustrated in Jan Wirgin, Chinese Ceramics from the Axel and Nora Lundgren Bequest, Stockholm, 1978, pl. 27, no. 25, and one in the Swedish Royal Collection, published in Oriental Ceramics. The World's Great Collections, vol. 8, Tokyo, 1982, pl. 216. An example from the Mottahedeh collection, illustrated in Michael Howard and John Ayers, China for the West. Chinese Porcelain and Other Decorative Arts for Export, vol. 1, New York, 1978, p. 12, was sold in our New York rooms, 20th March 1976, lot 113, and again, 20th September 2000, lot 105. Another comparable example was sold in our Paris rooms, 12th June 2008, lot 332.

Large porcelain dish with composite flower scroll, Ming dynaty, Yongle period (1403-1424). Underglaze blue with scrolling flower heads inside and outside. Unglazed base. Height: 62 millimetres. Diameter: 343 millimetres. Sir Percival David Foundation of Chinese Art, PDF A600 © Trustees of the British Museum

Dish, porcelain, decorated in underglaze blue with flowerscrolls, Ming dynasty, Yongle 1403-1424, Axel och Nora Lundgrens samling. ÖM-1977-75 © Östasiatiska Museet

Dish, underglaze blue with flowerscrolls, Ming dynasty, Yongle 1403-1424,6,5 x 33,5 cm, Gustav VI Adolf samling. ÖM-1974-1072 ©  Östasiatiska Museet.

A barbed rim charger, Yongle period (1403-1424). Diam. 34 cm; 13 3/8 in. Sold for 420,750 EUR at Sotheby's Paris, 12th June 2008, lot 332. Photo: Sotheby's.

Cf. my post: Plat en porcelaine bleu et blanc d'hibiscus, pivoines et camélias, Chine, époque Yongle (1403-1424)

Sotheby's. Fine Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art. Hong Kong | 08 avr. 2013