Lot 134. A Very Rare and Fine Blue and White Bowl, Xuande six-character mark in underglaze blue within a double circle and of the period (1426-1435); 7 5/8in. (19.4cm.) diam. Falk Collection no. 243. Estimate USD 300,000 - USD 500,000. Price realised USD 1,161,000. © Christie's Images Ltd 2001

The gently rounded sides finely painted on the exterior with an immortal, possibly Xiwangmu, seated on the back of a phoenix flying above an island-dotted lake towards the shore where a figure sits within a pavilion shaded by a willow tree, the scene interrupted on one side by two trees within billowing clouds, all below a double-line border and above a band of classic scroll encircling the foot, the interior plain, fitted box, stand.

Provenance: M.C. Wang Collection, Shanghai.
Edward T. Chow Collection.
Mathias Komor, New York, 1953. 

Literature: H.D. Ling and E. T. Chow, Collection of Chinese Ceramics from the Hall of Leisurely Pastime, in two volumes, Hong Kong, 1950, vol. II, p. 69, no. 91.
M. Komor, Imperial Porcelains of the Ming Dynasty, New York, 1951, no. 30.
C. Osgood, Blue and White Chinese Porcelain: A Study of Form, New York, 1956, pl. 38. 

Exhibited: Ming Porcelains: A Retrospective, New York, China House Gallery, China Institute in America, 1970 - 1971, no. 13.
The Real, the Fake, and the Masterpiece, New York, The Asia Society Galleries, 1988, no. 23. 

Note: This bowl belongs to a group of imperial wares that may be considered to be among the finest of all Xuande porcelains. The bowls and dishes in this group are decorated with extremely well-painted figures in landscape, often with pavilions. Judging from the examples that have been preserved in the palace collections, these were greatly favored by succeeding Chinese emperors.

A bowl of the same size and with identical decoration to that on the Falk bowl is in the collection of the National Palace Museum, Taiwan, and illustrated in the Catalogue of the Special Exhibition of Selected Hsüan-te Imperial Porcelains of the Ming Dynasty, National Palace Museum, Taipei, 1998, pp. 350-1, no. 148, where the decoration is described as 'court ladies playing the vertical flute to attract phoenixes'. A second bowl with the same decoration as the Falk bowl is in the collection of the British Museum, London.