A blue and white 'Rosette' moonflask, bianhu, Ming Dynasty, Yongle Period. Photo: Sotheby's.

modelled after a Middle Eastern metal prototype, the flattened spherical body rising to a waisted neck and a small bulb-shaped mouth, set with two elegantly arched strap handles ending in a leaf-shaped terminal, freely painted in deep tones of cobalt accented with 'heaping and piling', the domed circular front and back with a formal rosette centred by a yin-yangmedallion within a ring of petal lappets, surrounded by a radiating eight-pointed starburst of alternating foliate and floral motifs, the larger leaves dotted at the apex, all within a formal 'half-cash' diaper border around the edge, the upper bulb picked out with a narrow band of asters and carnations between double-line borders repeated at the rim and a single fillet collaring the neck, the handles outlined with double lines and decorated with a spray of lotus at the terminus, above two blue lines running down the narrow sides, covered overall with a glossy glaze of fine, smooth texture, the low rounded square foot ring left unglazed, wood stand; 31.7 cm., 12 1/2  in. Estimation 800,000 — 1,200,000 HKD (80,478 - 120,717 EUR) 

Provenance: Christie's Hong Kong, 30th May 2005, lot 1451.

This flask represents one of the archetypal wares created at the imperial kilns in Jingdezhen during the early Ming dynasty and gained favour with both Chinese rulers and foreign royalty. It belongs to a group of vessels that was inspired by Persian prototypes and created a new stylistic avenue for Chinese porcelain. These flasks were produced in slightly varying sizes, and the slender angular bulb and short foot of the present piece are characteristic of the larger flasks made during the Yongle period. 

Closely related examples of slightly smaller size include one in the collection of the Ottoman sultans in Turkey, illustrated in Regina Krahl, Chinese Ceramics in the Topkapi Saray Museum, Istanbul, London, 1986, vol. 2, pl. 616; one from the Shanghai Museum, Shanghai, included in the exhibition Seika jiki ten, Matsuya Ginza, Tokyo, 1988, cat. no. 16; and another, from the Jingguantang and Huang Ding Xuan collections, included in the exhibition In Pursuit of Antiques. Thirty-Fifth Anniversary Exhibition of the Min Chiu Society, Hong Kong Museum of Art, Hong Kong, 1995, cat. no. 124, sold in these rooms, 29th October 1991, lot 29, and twice at Christie's Hong Kong, 3rd November 1996, lot 545, and, 28th November 2006, lot 1512. Another flask of this type was sold in our Paris rooms, 18th December 2009, lot 65. 

The design and shape of this flask appear to have derived from Near or Middle Eastern pottery or metal prototypes, although no exact counterpart has yet been found. Its possible origin is discussed in Margaret Medley, 'Islam and Chinese Porcelain in the 14th and Early 15th Centuries', Bulletin of the Oriental Ceramic Society of Hong Kong, no. 6, 1982-4, where a Xuande-marked flask in the Sir David Percival collection is illustrated, fig. 11; and in John Alexander Pope, 'An Early Ming Porcelain in Muslim Style',Aus der Welt der Islamischen Kunst. Festschrift für Ernst Kuhnel, Berlin, 1959, where another blue-and-white flask is published, pl. 3B, together with a large inlaid brass canteen with similar strap handles and 'garlic' mouth, pl. 1B, the latter from the Eumoforpoulos Collection, sold in our London rooms, 5th June 1940, lot 72, and now in the Freer Gallery of Art, Washington D.C. 

Sotheby's. Important Ming Porcelain from a Private Collection. Hong Kong | 08 oct. 2013. http://www.sothebys.com