superbly potted in conical form, the wide flaring sides rising from a straight foot, delicately painted in soft cobalt-blue tones with characteristic 'heaping and piling' effect, depicting flowering and budding roses borne on a leafy meander growing from above the foot, all divided by line borders, wood stand.

Provenance: Collection of H. Fairtlough, Esq.
Sotheby's London, 28th May 1968, lot 166.
Collection of L.A. Basmadjieff (1911-2000).
Sotheby's London, 14th March 1972, lot 134.
Sotheby's Hong Kong, 27th November 1973, lot 219

Note: This bowl, with its graceful design of roses liberally executed in shades of cobalt blue, exemplifies the subtle yet striking porcelain painting style that is characteristic of the Yongle reign. The superb juxtaposition of the unrestrained brushwork and the white negative space simultaneously allowed the craftsman to achieve balance and harmony in the overall composition in a highly understated manner.

The incorporation of roses as a motif on the current bowl is also extremely rare, as opposed to the like of peonies, as roses are far less frequently seen in the repertoire of Chinese ceramics. They are also more difficult to identify with certainty if it were not for the rosehips and spiralled innermost petals to each bloom as seen on the current bowl.

Only a number of extant related examples appears to be recorded, including one sold at Christie's Hong Kong, 4th November 1996, lot 706A, and the companion piece to the current bowl, recently sold in these rooms, 3rd October 2018, lot 105, from the collection of Sir Quo-Wei Lee. Also from the collection of H. Fairtlough, Esq., it was sold in our London rooms, 28th May 1968, lot 167, as the subsequent lot, and later reappeared in our London rooms, 27th November 1973, lot 133, as the preceding lot. Compare also a related bowl, with a sparser arrangement of roses, from the collection of Mr and Mrs John A. Pope and included in Ming Blue-and-White: An Exhibition of Blue-decorated porcelain of the Ming dynasty, The Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, 1949-1950, cat. no. 42.

For examples of conical bowls decorated with a different floral design, see one from the Ardebil Shrine and now in the National Museum of Iran, Tehran, illustrated in John Alexander Pope, Chinese Porcelains from the Ardebil Shrine, Washington, 1956, pl. 48, and again in Takatoshi Misugi, Chinese Porcelain Collections of the Near East, Topkapi and Ardebil, vol. 3, Hong Kong, 1981, cat. no. A60.  

Sotheby's. Important Chinese Art from the Collection of Sir Quo-Wei Lee II, Hong Kong, 08 Oct 2019