Lot 1852. A magnificent early Ming blue and white barbed-rim dish, Yongle period (1403-1425), 14 7/8 in. (38 cm.) diam. Estimate HKD 3,000,000 - HKD 4,000,000. Price Realized HKD 6,020,000 © Christie's Images Ltd 2010

The central medallion well-painted in soft violet-blue tones with composite floral blooms to include peony, lotus, camellia, pomegranate and mallow, borne on slender interlaced vines within a shaped panel of double-lines conforming to the gently fluted cavetto, designed with twelve detached floral sprays repeated on the exterior, the broad everted mouth rim with a band of lingzhi scroll within double-line borders, the base unglazed, Japanese wood box.

Provenance: Mayuyama Co. Ltd., Tokyo, Japan 

Exhibited: Fukuyama Castle Museum, 1989, 70 Selected Masterpieces of Chinese Porcelain, and illustrated in the Catalogue, no 45

Note: A number of dishes of this pattern have been published. Compare a very similar foliate-rim dish illustrated by J. A. Pope, Chinese Porcelains from the Ardebil Shrine, Washington, 1956, pl. 35, nos. 29.101, 29.106, and 29.109; one illustrated by R. Krahl, Chinese Ceramics from the Meiyintang Collection, 1994, no. 662; from the National Palace Museum, Taipei, illustrated in Blue and White Ware of The Ming Dynasty, Book I, Hong Kong, 1963, pls. 22 and 22a; and the dish formerly from the collection of Mrs Walter Sedgwick, illustrated by J. Harrison-Hall, Ming Ceramics in the British Museum, London, 2001, p. 116, fig. 3:35. For a discussion of the evolution of the design on Ottoman wares of the early 16th century with illustrated reference to examples of the Chinese prototype and the Iznik equivalent in the British Museum, see J. Rawson, Chinese Ornament: the Lotus and the Dragon, London, 1990, p. 185, fig. 163. 

Porcelain serving dish with a bracketed rim and underglaze blue decoration, Ming dynasty, Yongle period (1403-1425). Height: 7.6 centimetres, Diameter: 38 centimetres, Weight: 2.4 kilograms. Donated by Mrs Walter Sedgwick, 1937,1012.1 © 2017 Trustees of the British Museum

Dish, Iznik, Ottoman dynasty, circa 1535-1545. Black, green, manganese, cobalt painted and glazed ceramic, pottery. Height: 7.6 centimetres, Diameter: 38.9 centimetres (rim), Diameter: 20.5 centimetres (base). Bequeathed by Miss Edith Godman, 1983, G.33 © The Trustees of the British Museum

Christie's. The Imperial Sale Important Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art, 31 May 2010, Hong Kong