Lot 8012. A fine and extremely rare yellow-enamelled bowl, Xuande incised six-character mark within a double circle and of the period (1426-1435). 6 in. (15.2 cm.) diam. Estimate HKD 26,000,000 - HKD 35,000,000 (USD 3,345,264 - USD 4,503,240). © Christies Images Ltd 2017

The bowl is in the form of an inverted bell shape flaring at the rim and supported on a wide foot ring. The exterior and interior are covered in an imperial yellow enamel pooling around the foot, the base is incised under a transparent glaze with a six-character reign mark, box.

Provenance: Sold at Christie’s Hong Kong, 25 October 1993, lot 732
Eskenazi Ltd., London
Sold at Sotheby’s Hong Kong, The Meiyintang Collection Part III, 4 April 2012, lot 15

A XUANDE YELLOW-ENAMELLED INVERTED BELL-SHAPED BOWL
Lu Chenglong, Palace Museum, Beijing

The bowl is of an inverted bell-shaped form, measuring 15.2 cm. diam. (mouth), with gently flared rims rising from deep curved walls and raised on a foot ring. The exterior and interior are covered in a yellow enamel. The base is incised under a transparent glaze with a Xuande six-character reign mark within a double circle. 

Yellow-enamelled wares made by the imperial kilns during the Xuande reign have been passed down and excavated in various forms, including deep bowls, inverted bell-shaped bowls, dishes, and pear-shaped ewers. Some bear either an underglaze-blue or incised mark, some are unmarked. For an example with incised six-character reign mark within a double circle, see a dish in the National Palace Museum, Taipei, measuring 4.2 cm. high, 18.5 cm. diam. (mouth), 12 cm. diam. (base). For another example with an underglaze-blue mark, see a dish in the National Museum of China. Both examples are covered with a yellow enamel on the interior and exterior with the base under a transparent glaze. 

Xuande yellow-enamelled wares that have been passed down are remarkably rare. Yellow-enamelled sherds unearthed from the Xuande strata at the imperial kilns at Jingdezhen since the 1980s have enriched the public’s understanding of this type of wares. Among those which have been unearthed is an unmarked pear-shaped ewer measuring 12.9 cm. high, 4 cm. diam. (mouth), 5.7 cm. diam. (foot), which is covered with a yellow enamel on the exterior, and a transparent enamel on the interior and on the base (fig. 1); a deep bowl, measuring 7.4 cm. high, 13.8 cm. diam. (mouth), 7.8 cm. (foot), covered with a yellow enamel on both the exterior and interior, with an underglaze-blue six-character reign mark within a double circle under a transparent glaze on the base (fig. 2). 

fig. 1 Yellow-enamelled unmarked pear-shaped ewer unearthed from the Xuande strata at the imperial kilns at Jingdezhen. Collection of The Jingdezhen Institute of Ceramic Technology

fig. 2. Yellow-enamelled deep bowl, underglaze-blue six-character Xuande mark  unearthed from the Xuande strata at the imperial kilns at Jingdezhen. Collection of The Jingdezhen Institute of Ceramic Technology.

The present type of inverted bell-shaped bowls first appeared at the imperial kilns during the Xuande period. The National Palace Museum, Taipei, has a nearly identical example in its collection, and also an unmarked example decorated in iron red and underglaze blue (fig. 3)

fig. 3. Iron red and underglaze blue inverted bell-shaped bowl, Xuande mark and period. Collection of the National Palace Museum, Taipei.

Literature: Christie’s 20 Years in Hong Kong, 1986-2006. Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art Highlights, Hong Kong, 2006, p. 105
Reginal Krahl, Chinese Ceramics from the Meiyintang Collection, London, 1994-2010, vol. 4(I), pp. 130-131. no. 1665

Exhibited: The British Museum, Chinese Ceramics from the Meiyintang Collection, London, 1994
Sporting d’Hiver, Evolution vers la perfection. Céramiques de Chine de la Collection Meiyintang, Monte Carlo, 1996, no. 119

Note: Yellow monochrome porcelains from the Xuande period are exceptionally rare. The only one other example in this distinctive form is in the National Palace Museum, Taipei, and has a similarly incised reign mark, see collection number: guci12497/yuan199 (fig. 1). The serial number for the National Palace Museum bowl from the 1925 inventory begins with the character li, indicating that it was originally housed in the gudong fang, ‘Chamber of Antiques’, in the Forbidden City.

fig. 1 A yellow-enamelled bowl, Xuande incised six-character mark within a double circle and of the period (1426-1435), Collection of the National Palace Museum, Taipei.

The majority of the other surviving Xuande mark and period yellow-enamelled porcelain are dishes, bearing either an incised reign mark for larger examples, or underglaze-blue marks for smaller dishes. For the former, see two dishes in the National Palace Museum, Taipei, one (18.3 cm.) published in Minji meihin zuroku, Tokyo, 1977-8, vol. 1, no. 100, and the other (18.5 cm.) in Catalogue of the Special Exhibition of Selected Hsüan-te Imperial Porcelains of the Ming Dynasty, Taipei, 1998, no. 162; and a third (20 cm.) sold at Sotheby’s Hong Kong, 13 November 1990, no. 120.

Yellow-enamelled sherds had been recovered from the Xuande stratum of the Ming imperial kiln site at Jingdezhen. These include fragments of an unmarked yellow-enamelled covered ewer, and of a deep bowl bearing an underglaze-blue mark, illustrated in Xuande Imperial Porcelain excavated at Jingdezhen, Chang Foundation, Taipei, 1998, p. 47, nos. 43-2, and p. 109, nos.112-1, respectively.