A blue and white kosometsuke food bowl, Ming Dynasty, Chongzhen Period. Photo Sotheby's

of conical form, with steep, faceted sides and supported on a splayed foot, each panel painted with a single ruyi head above a row of overlapping stylized leaves, the foot with a geometric wave band, the interior painted in the well with a camellia blossom on a leafy branch, beneath a chevron border and single line at the rim. Diameter 5 3/8 in., 13.7 cm. Estimation 6,000 — 8,000 USD

Provenance: Japanese Private Collection.

Litterature: S. Marchant & Son, Ltd. Ming Porcelain for the Japanese Market, London, 2008, no. 3.

Only two other food bowls of this rare type appear to be recorded; one in the Tokyo National Museum is illustrated in the Heibonsha Series, Toki Zenshu, vol. 15, p. 55, another is illustrated in Masahiko Kawahara, Ko-Sumetsuke Color Section and Monochrome Section, nos. 93-94, pp. 118-119 and nos. 336-367, p. 97. Another footed bowl is illustrated in Julia Curtis, Trade, Taste & Transformation, Jingdezhen Porcelain for Japan 1620-1645, China Institute Gallery, New York, 2006, no. 23.

Sotheby's. Fine Chinese Ceramics & Works of Art. New York | 18 Mar 2014, 10:30 AM - www.sothebys.com