Lot 99. An underglaze-blue and overglaze-red bowl and cover, Xuande six-character mark and of the period (1426-1435); 6.7/8 in. (17.5 cm.) diam. Estimate GBP 8,000 - GBP 12,000. Price realised GBP 26,450. © Christie’s Images Limited 1998

The bowl with deep sides rising to a flaring rim, decorated in iron-red with dragons in pursuit of the flaming pearl, amidst cloud wisps and above a band around the foot enclosing crested waves, the domed cover similarly decorated around the central circular knop, restored.

Note: This shape appears to be typical of the Xuande period, but does not appear to have been used again until the 18th Century. Xuande bowls and covers of this design were also made in underglaze blue, without the additional enamel, and in underglaze blue and underglaze copper-red. The decoration on the present bowl and cover appears to be rarer than the other forms. A very similar bowl and cover to the present lot was included in the National Palace Museum, Taiwan, 1998 Special Exhibition of Selected Hsan-te Imperial Porcelains of the Ming Dynasty, Catalogue no.55, pp.164 and 165. An underglaze blue and copper-red bowl and cover, which has similar crested waves around the foot, is in the Percival David Foundation, illustrated in the Catalogue, no.A.678, and by D. Lion-Goldschmidt, Ming Porcelain, New York, 1978, p.96, pl.62. For bowls and covers decorated only in underglaze blue, which appear to have petal lappets around the foot instead of waves, see the Palmer example included in the Oriental Ceramic Society 1957 exhibition, The Art of the Ming Dynasty, Catalogue no.123, and sold in our Hong Kong Rooms, 17 January, 1989, lot 568; and the Percival David Foundation example, illustrated in Oriental Ceramics, 1982, vol.6, no.85. 

Christie's. MING - THE AGE OF REFINEMENT. London, 16 November 1998