Lot 3016. A fine Ming-style blue and white 'Lotus' dice bowl, Mark and period of Yongzheng (1723-1735); 29 cm., 11 3/8  in. Estimate 1,500,000 — 2,500,000 HKD. Lot sold 1,840,000 HKD. Photo: Sotheby's 2013

stoutly potted with low rounded sides supported on a slightly tapered foot, the thick walls painted in the fifteenth-century style with a broad lotus scroll issuing six large blossoms wreathed by a dense curling foliage, between a border of crested waves at the rim and a band of 'S'-shaped scrolls encircling the foot, all divided by single or double lines, the interior and the base left white, the footring unglazed, inscribed in underglaze blue with a six-character reign mark written in a horizontal line within a double rectangular panel below the rim, wood stand

Provenance: Sotheby’s London, 16th November 1971, lot 100.
Christie’s Tokyo, 15th February 1981, lot 306.
Sotheby’s Hong Kong, 19th May 1982, lot 211. 

Note: A closely related bowl from the Riesco collection was sold several times in our rooms, in London, 23rd June 1970, lot 113, in New York, 13th March 1975, lot 377, and again in London, 30th March 1978, lot 207; another was sold in our London rooms, 13th March 1973, lot 265, and again in these rooms, 16th May 1977, lot 111; and a third example was sold at Christie’s Hong Kong, 8th October 1990, lot 577, and again in these rooms, 7thMay 2002, lot 577. 

Bowls of this type are also known decorated with a mixed flower scroll, such as one from the T.Y. Chao and T.T. Tsui collection, sold in these rooms, 19th May 1987, lot 273, and again at Christie’s Hong Kong, 27th May 2008, lot 1577. These mixed flower scroll bowls are also distinguished by the crashing waves which move in the opposite direction to those painted with lotus scrolls such as the present bowl, and a more ornate classic scroll at the foot.