Lot 1520. A rare blue and white lianzi bowl, Xuande six-character mark within double circles and of the period (1426-1435); 8 1/8 in. (20.7 cm.) diam. Estimate HKD 500,000 - HKD 700,000. Price realised HKD 540,000. © Christie's Images Ltd 2006

Well potted and painted in inky-blue tones with a bold design of narrow petal flutes around the steep rounded sides rising from a narrow foot, below a key-fret border around the mouth rim, the interior finely painted with a sprig of berries within the central roundel surrounded by a wide floral scroll with alternating camellia and chrysanthemum blooms, below the wave band at the mouth rim, Japanese wood box. 

Provenance: A Japanese private collection.

Note: Bowls of this pattern with a single register of lotus petals to the exterior bearing Xuande reign marks include one from the Collection of Mrs. Alfred Clark, exhibited in Blue and White Porcelain from the Collection of Mrs. Alfred Clark, Spink & Son, London, 1974, Catalogue no. 12.

Cf. two bowls illustrated by A. Joseph, Ming Porcelains, London, 1971, pls. 30 and 31, the latter with two registers of petals on the exterior; and another from an important private collection, sold at Sotheby's Hong Kong, 17 May 1988, lot 24. Compare also the Xuande-marked bowl in the present sale, lot 1513, which is decorated with the double row of petals on the exterior, and refer to the footnote for examples of this type.

There are also a number of bowls of this design without reign marks, such as the one in the National Palace Museum, Taiwan, included in the Special Exhibition of Early Ming Porcelains, 1982, illustrated in the Catalogue, no. 23; one illustrated in Porcelains from the Tianjin Municipal Museum, 1993, pls. 76 and 77; one illustrated by J. A. Pope, Chinese Porcelains from the Ardebil Shrine, London, 1956, pl. 47 (top right), where two others are also mentioned; and another included in the exhibition, Beauty and Tranquility: The Eli Lilly Collection of Chinese Art, Indianapolis Museum of Art, 1983, Catalogue no. 91.

Christie's. Important Chinese Ceramics & Works of Art, Hong Kong, 28 November 2006