Lot 2984. A Rare Blue And White ‘Floral Scroll’ Bowl, Xuande Six-Character Mark In Underglaze Blue Within A Double Circle And Of The Period (1426-1435); 6 1/8 in. (15.5 cm.) diam., box. Estimate HKD 3,000,000 - HKD 5,000,000. © Christie's Images Ltd 2021

The bowl is thinly potted with rounded sides supported on a tall foot, finely painted in cobalt blue with ‘heaping and piling’ effect with a composite floral scroll on the body comprising eight lotus, peony, camellia, rose, hibiscus and chrysanthemum blossoms, above a band of upright lappets and a band of classic scroll around the foot. The centre of the interior is inscribed with the reign mark in double circles.

Provenance: An Asian private Collection, acquired before early 1990s.

Note: This exquisite bowl is very rare with its unusually tall foot, with very few surviving examples of this form. One identical example of same size and form is known, bearing the same decorations on the exterior and a Xuande mark on the interior, in the National Palace Museum Collection, illustrated in Catalogue of the Special Exhibition of Selected Hsuan-te Imperial Porcelains of the Ming Dynasty, Taipei, 1998, no. 117 (fig. 1). 

fig. 1 Collection of the National Palace Museum, Taipei

Another bowl of same form and size, but decorated with the Bajixiang supported on a lotus scroll and with the reign mark enclosed in double-rectangles, is in the same collection, ibid., no. 116 (fig. 2).

fig. 2 Collection of the National Palace Museum, Taipei

Compare also to a Xuande-marked stem cup with a very similar decoration of a composite floral scroll above upright lappets and a band of classic scroll, in the same collection, ibid., no. 88 (fig. 3).

fig. 3 Collection of the National Palace Museum, Taipei

Christie's. Important Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art, Hong Kong, 28 may 2021