Lot 3630. A fine and rare blue and white barbed 'floral scroll' dish, Ming dynasty, Yongle period (1403-1425). Estimate 6,000,000 — 8,000,000 HKD. Photo Sotheby's.

very finely potted with shallow rounded sides divided into twelve bracket foliations, rising from a short tapered foot to a barbed everted rim, beautifully and richly painted in shades of cobalt accented with the 'heaped and piled' effect, the interior with a central lotus bloom shown en face surrounded by blooms of camellia, lotus, chrysanthemum, mallow and pink, all wreathed by interlocked meandering stems within a barbed line border, further encircled around the sides by detached sprays of peony, chrysanthemum, pomegranate, hibiscus, morning glory and lotus, each repeated twice and paired across the dish, below a border of cresting waves emitting white foams within double-lines at the rim, the exterior painted with similar detached floral sprays within double-line borders, the base and footring left unglazed; 33.8 cm, 13 3/8  in.

Provenance: Gulbenkian Museum of Oriental Art and Archaeology, Durham, no. L87 (on loan). 
Christie's London, 9th November 2004, lot 131.

Notes: The period of Yongle (1403-24) was a golden age for the history of China’s blue and white porcelain. Dishes painted with flower scrolls like the present piece rank among the most prestigious ceramic wares from this period. They were made both for the Ming court and for export, were sent to the Middle East mainly via the official trade system, where they were later copied in earthenware. Similar examples are very rare, although they are represented in world-famous museums and private collections.

One of the decorative innovations of early fifteenth century was the use of separate floral sprays or bunches of flowers in the cavetto instead of a continuous scroll. The heavy wreath of lotus or peony found on fourteenth-century dishes gave way to more varied series of formalised motifs. Yongle blue and white is also characterised by its particularly fine cobalt imported from the Middle East, which fired to a dark, deep blue in some parts and a delicate, pale blue in others. The intensity of the blue tones was highlighted by the white body of the porcelain clay, and the silvery-black and crystal-like appearance of the pigment, which often occurred in the firing, known as the 'heaped and piled' effect, is a much-copied trademark of imperial blue and white from the early Ming dynasty.

A similar dish in the Topkapi Saray Museum, Istanbul, is illustrated in Regina Krahl, Chinese Ceramics in the Topkapi Saray Museum, Istanbul, London, 1986, vol. II, pl. 601; another in the Percival David Foundation, now on loan to the British Museum, London, is published in Oriental Ceramics. The World's Great Collections, vol. 6, Tokyo, 1982, pl. 76; one in the National Palace Museum, Taipei, was included in the Special Exhibition of Early Ming Porcelains, National Palace Museum, Taipei, 1982, cat. no. 38; other dishes of this design include two in the Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities, Stockholm, one illustrated in Jan Wirgin, Chinese Ceramics from the Axel and Nora Lundgren Bequest, Stockholm, 1978, pl. 27, no. 25, the other, formerly in the Swedish Royal Collection of Gustaf VI Adolf, illustrated in Oriental Ceramics, op.cit., vol. 8, Tokyo, 1982, pl. 216. An example from the Mottahedeh Collection, illustrated in David Howard and John Ayers, China for the West. Chinese Porcelain and Other Decorative Arts for Export, New York, 1978, vol. 1, p. 12, was sold in our New York rooms, 20th March 1976, lot 113, and again, 20th September 2000, lot 105. Another comparable example, from the Collection of Mr. F. Gordon and Mrs. Elizabeth Hunter Morrill, was sold in these rooms, 8th April 2013, lot 3018.

Dish, porcelain, decorated in underglaze blue with flowerscrolls, Ming dynasty, Yongle period (1403-1424), Axel och Nora Lundgrens samling, ÖM-1977-75, Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities, Stockholm ©2016 Östasiatiska Museet

Dish, underglaze blue with flowerscrolls. Ming dynasty, Yongle period (1403-1424), Gustav VI Adolf samling, ÖM-1974-1072 , Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities, Stockholm ©2016 Östasiatiska Museet

A fine blue and white barbed 'flower scroll' dish, Ming dynasty, Yongle period (1403-1425). Sold 5,560,000 HKD at Sotheby's, Fine Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art, Hong Kong, 08 Apr 2013, lot 3018. Photo Sotheby's

Compare also a Yongle dish of similar pattern, but with delicate lotus scrolls instead of waves around the barbed rim, sold in our London rooms, 14th March 1972, lot 132, in these rooms, 29th November 1976, lot 463, and again 8th April 2009, lot 1670, and exhibited in Chinese Art from the Reach Family Collection, Eskenazi, London, 1989, cat. no. 35.

A rare barbed 'floral scroll' blue and white dish, Ming dynasty, Yongle period (1403-1425). Sold 3,140,000 HKD at Sotheby's, Fine Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art, Hong Kong, 08 Apr 2009, lot 1670. Photo Sotheby's