Lot 1374. A pair of Ming-style blue and white conical bowls, Kangxi period (1662-1722); 8¾ in. (22.4 cm.) diam. Estimate USD 15,000 - USD 20,000. Price realised USD 17,500. © Christie's Image Ltd 2010.

Each with widely flared sides rising to the lobed rim, the interior painted with a central medallion of a fruiting and flowering peach branch below six flowers in the well and a narrow band of flower sprigs at the rim, the exterior with an upper register of six different fruiting and flowering branches above a lower register of six different flowers, with a band of classic scroll encircling the foot, with apocryphal Xuande mark on the base.

Provenance: Ralph M. Chait Galleries, New York.

Note: A Kangxi-marked bowl of this unusual pattern, although of slightly larger size (23 cm.), is illustrated in The Tsui Museum of Art; Chinese Ceramics IV; Qing Dynasty, Hong Kong, 1995, no. 51. For the fifteenth century prototype, see d'Argencé, Chinese Ceramics in the Avery Brundage Collection, San Francisco, 1967, pl. L1(C).

Christie's. Fine Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art Including Property from the Arthur M. Sackler Collections, 26 March 2010, New York, Rockefeller Plaza