Lot 4. A small blue and white globular bowl, China, Xuande mark and period (1426-1435). Estimate 40 000/60 000 €. Lot sold 380.000 €. Photo Nagel

The well-potted jar is decorated around the sides with a continuous band of peony scroll below a narrow band of lotus scroll and above bands of upright petal lappets and classic scroll in rich cobalt blue enhanced by darker 'heaping and piling'. The interior is decorated with a chrysanthemum sprig within double borders on the convex center, corresponding to the concave base. The Xuande six-charakter mark in line is situated above one of the peony blossoms. D. 9,5 cm. Good condition

Compare two examples in: Jessica Harrison-Hall, Ming Ceramics int the British Museum, 4:22 and 4:23. There it is mentioned, that these globular cups were made in the Xuande era were qing shui wan (pur water bowls) which were filled with water and carried during prayers, symbolizing the purification the the heart by water.

A number of Xuande-marked examples exist in private and museum collections including one in the collection of the National Palace Museum, Taipei, which is illustrated in Catalogue of the Special Exhibition of Selected Hsuan-te Imperial Porcelains of the Ming Dynasty, National Palace Museum, Taipei, 1998, pp. 60-61; another is illustrated in Chinese Ceramics in the Idemitsu Collection, Tokyo, 1987, pl. 636.

Compare, also, an example from the E.T. Chow Collection sold at Sotheby's Hong Kong, 19 May 1981, lot 402, and another sold at Sotheby's Hong Kong, 2 May 2005, lot 508 

Nagel Auctions. "Asiatische Kunst", Sale 736, 06.05.2016