Lot 2907. A fine blue and white ‘lotus’ bowl, lianzi wan, Xuande six-character mark in underglaze blue within a double circle and of the period (1426-1435); 8 1/8 in. (20.8 cm.) diam. Estimate: HK$4,000,000.00 - HK$6,000,000.00 (USD 512,700 - USD 769,050). Price realised HKD 4,900,000. © Christie's Images Ltd 2018.

The bowl is delicately potted with deep rounded walls standing on a short foot. The bowl is decorated in a inky rich cobalt blue of varied tones. The interior with a central medallion enclosing a pomegranate spray encircled by a scrolling leafy stem bearing six stylised lotus blooms, all below a key-fret band to the rim. The exterior is decorated with two registers of slender upright petals beneath a band of tumultuous waves, wood box.

Provenance: A Japanese private collection
Sold at Sotheby’s Hong Kong, 7 October 2006, lot 907.

Note: The current bowl takes its name, lianzi wan (lotus bowl) from its resemblance to the form of a lotus pod. The form originated in the Yongle period, and retained its popularity through the reign of Xuande, as demonstrated by a group of Xuande-marked lianzi bowls in the National Palace Museum, Taipei, published in Catalogue of the Special Exhibition of Selected Hsüan-te Imperial Porcelains of the Ming Dynasty, Taipei, 1998, pp. 360-377, nos. 153-161.