A large and brilliantly painted Ming-style blue and white 'Melon' dish, Mark and period of Yongzheng. Estimate 4,800,000 — 5,500,000  HKD. Unsold. Photo courtesy Sotheby's

robustly potted with shallow rounded sides rising from a short foot to a flat everted mouthrim, the interior centred with a medallion decorated in underglaze-blue with a continuous scrolling branch of vine bearing seven lobed melons interspersed with flowers, tendrils and leaves, all within a broad composite floral scroll bearing lotus and chrysanthemum blossoms encircling the medallion, the rim painted with a wave border within a raised lip, the exterior with six fruiting sprigs, including lychee, pomegranate, loquat, peach, cherry and crab apple, the base inscribed with a six-character reign mark within a double-circle; 45.2 cm., 17 3/4  in.

Provenance: Christie's Hong Kong, 27th May 2008, lot 1576.

Notes: Painted with a rich and confidently rendered design of fruiting melon vines bordered by a composite floral scroll at the well and crashing wave rim, this dish assumes an immediate sense of familiarity as it strongly evokes the early Ming dynasty. The Yongzheng craftsman of the present dish has reinterpreted the original design by creating a denser and more stylised design: the number of melons in the centre has more than doubled and the flower blooms have decreased in size to allow for a more complex matrix of leaves. In its tight composition it is more akin to the flower scroll motif that also adorned dishes of the early 15th century.

A closely related dish, sold in these rooms, 23rd May 1978, lot 131, is illustrated in Chinese Porcelain. The S.C. Ko Tianminlou Collection, Hong Kong, 1987, pl. 53; and another was sold in our New York rooms, 23rd September 1997, lot 282. Dishes of this type were also produced with the fruit, leaves and flower scroll rendered in a more naturalistic style with watery shades of cobalt blue, and varying interpretations of crashing waves around the rim; see one, from the Jingguantang collection, included in the exhibition Gems of Chinese Art: Selections of Chinese Ceramics and Bronzes from the Tsui Art Foundation, The Empress Place Museum, Singapore, 1992, cat. no. 95; and another sold in our London rooms, 7th June 1988, lot 273.

For the fifteenth century prototype of this dish, compare a slightly smaller Yongle example painted with three large fruit growing from a vine, from the Wu Lai-hsi, Eumorfopoulos and Brankston collections and now in the British Museum, London, illustrated in Jessica Harrison-Hall, Ming Ceramics in the British Museum, London, 2004, pl. 3:34; and another in the Shanghai Museum, Shanghai, published in Underglaze Blue and Red, Shanghai, 1987, pl. 60.

In China, melons are associated with Shao Ping, whose character came to symbolise loyalty. Having held the title of Marquis of Dongling during the Qin dynasty (221-206 BC), he lost his rank and wealth when the Han overthrew the Qin. Rather than associating himself with the Han rulers (206 BC – AD 220), he reverted to growing melons outside the capital, Chang’an, which became famous for their fine quality and became known as Dongling melons. He was immortalised in a poem by Tao Yunming (354-427), and is quoted in the translation of William Acker, from Jon Minford and Joseph S.M. Lau, An Anthology of Transactions. Classical Chinese Literature. From Antiquity to the Tang Dynasty, vol. 1, Hong Kong, 2000, p. 502. More popularly, the melon represents prosperity and a long lineage of sons, as illustrated in the phrase, guadie, minmian.

Melon vines were a popular subject of paintings in ink and colour from at least the Song dynasty (960-1279) and have appeared on blue and white porcelain since the Yuan (1279-1368) and peaked in popularity during the Ming dynasty (1368-1644). An album leaf of the late Yuan or early Ming dynasty, with seals dating to around the Chenghua period, was included in the exhibition Seven Classical Paintings, Eskenazi Ltd, London, 2009, cat. no. 7, also illustrated on the dust jacket.

Sotheby's. Important Chinese Works of Art, Hong Kong, 07 avr. 2015