Lot 559. A fine and very rare Ming blue and white bowl, Xuande six-character mark within double circles and of the period (1426-1435); 8 in. (20.3 cm.) diam. Estimate HKD 2,800,000 - HKD 3,500,000. Price realised HKD 3,374,100. © Christie's Image Ltd 2002

Finely potted with wide rounded sides, the bowl is painted with a composite lotus scroll as the main decorative band around the exterior between a lappet band rising from the foot and a key-fret border around the mouth rim, the interior with a central lotus medallion encircled on the cavetto by four fruiting sprays, comprising peach, lychee, pomegranate and loquat, the cobalt of a rich colour with characteristic 'heaping and piling' effect, highlighting the details of the design, box.

Provenance: The T. Y. Chao Collection, sold in Hong Kong, 18 November 1986, lot 43.

Exhibited: Ming and Ch'ing Porcelain from the T. Y. Chao Family Foundation, Hong Kong Museum of Art, 1978, Catalogue no. 8.

Note: Previously sold in Hong Kong, 30 April 1996, lot 330.

The decoration on the present lot displays an unusual combination of otherwise characteristic early Ming motifs. The scrolling lotus is one of the most popular motifs on blue and white wares of this period, while the design of fruiting sprays is often found as the main decoration on dishes and meiping vases of the earlier Yongle period.

The present bowl appears to be unique, as there does not seem to be an exact published comparison for it, although there are other closely related bowls painted with variations of this design. A large bowl, dated to the 15th century, painted with a lotus scroll on the exterior and detached sprays of fruits and flowers on the interior, was included in the Philadelphia Museum of Art Exhibition of Blue-Decorated Porcelain of the Ming Dynasty, 1949, and illustrated in the Catalogue, no. 33; and another 15th-century deep bowl, illustrated ibid., has a similar design of a peony meander contrasted on the interior with fruit and flower branches. Cf. also a shallow bowl with fruiting and flowering sprays scattered throughout on the interior and exterior, in the National Palace Museum, Taibei, and illustrated in the Catalogue of the Special Exhibition of Selected Hsuan-te Imperial Porcelains of the Ming Dynasty, 1998, no. 62; while a large dice bowl with a peony scroll on the exterior and floral and fruiting sprays on the interior is illustrated ibid., no. 38.