Lot 1853. A fine early Ming blue and white dish, Yongle period (1403-1425), 11 in. (28 cm.) diam. Estimate HKD 800,000 - HKD 1,200,000. Price Realized HKD 2,660,000 © Christie's Images Ltd 2010

Well painted in inky-blue tones with pronounced 'heaping and piling', with a central lotus blossom encircled by five others radiating from the centre of the interior borne on scrolling stems, the design repeated as a continuous frieze on the cavetto below a classic scroll border at the mouth rim, the exterior with a chrysanthemum scroll between another classic scroll and a keyfret band at the mouth, the base unglazed.

Provenance: Acquired in the 1960's in New York by a collector and thence by descent to the present owner 

Note: Compare dishes of this unusual small size and pattern illustrated by Pope, Chinese Ceramics from the Ardebil Shrine, 1956, pl. 36; by Adrian Joseph, Ming Porcelain, London, 1971, pl. 20 and in Sekai Toji Zenshu, 1961, vol. II, fig. 83; illustrated by R. Krahl in Chinese Ceramics from the Meiyintang Collection, London, 1994, vol. 2, no. 662 and another formerly in the Gustav VI Collection and now in the Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities, Oriental Ceramics, The World's Great Collections, Kodansha, 1982, vol. 8, no. 215. A Xuande-marked example in the Victoria and Albert Museum is illustrated by H. Garner, Oriental Blue and White, London, 1954, no. 16.

Dish, Ming dynasty,  Xuande period (1426-35). Porcelain, painted in underglaze blue, Jingdezhen. Diameter: 28 cm. 1633-1876. © Victoria and Albert Museum, London 2017. 

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