Lot 3973. A fine and rare early Ming blue and white fruit bowl, Xuande six-character mark in a line and of the period (1426-1435); 11 1/2 in. (28.5 cm.) diam. Estimate HKD 2,500,000 - HKD 3,500,000. Price realised HKD 5,420,000. © Christie's Images Ltd 2012.

The shallow bowl with rounded sides is delicately painted to the exterior in vibrant tones of blue with concentrated areas of 'heaping and piling', to depict a composite floral scroll including lotus, chrysanthemum, rose, tree peony, pomegranate, hibiscus, camellia, and herbaceous peony, all above a band of lotus panels and a classic scroll encircling the foot.

Provenance: Hans Olstrum, Stockholm (according to label)
Sold at Sotheby's London, 6 December 1994, lot 150
Sotheby's Hong Kong, 8 October 2008, lot 2545.

Note: A very similar example was illustrated in the Hong Kong Museum of Art, exhibition Catalogue, Chinese Porcelain, S.C. Ko Tianminlou Collection, Hong Kong, 1987, vol. 1, col. pl. 26; another from the Eugene Bernat Collection was included in the exhibition catalogue, Ming Blue and White, Philadelphia, 1949, no. 62; and a third example is illustrated by Sir Harry Garner, Oriental Blue and White, pl. 26 and sold at Christie's Hong Kong, 2 May 1994, lot 632. Compare also a similar bowl with a Xuande mark, sold at Christie's Hong Kong, 28 October 2002, lot 692.