Lot 3578. A Large Underglaze Red ‘Peony’ Bowl, Hongwu Period (1368-1398). D 21cm. Sold for HKD 3,120,000/USD 400,000 (Estimate HKD 1,200,000 - 1,800,000/USD 153,846 - 230,769). © Poly Auction Hong Kong Limited

The bowl is potted with the deep rounded sides supported on a short straight foot. The interior is vividly painted in rich dark iron-red with a central medallion enclosing a leafy peony spray and an attendant bud within a double-line border surrounded by a chrysanthemum scroll on the walls, below a band of key-fret at the rim. The exterior is similarly painted with an undulating leafy stem of peony scroll between key-fret borders at the rim and foot. The red varies in shades from a vivid purplish tone to a pale reddish-grey.

Provenance: 1. Sotheby's New York, 28 May 1991, lot 218
2. The Meiyintang Collection.

Exhibition: Evolution to Perfection: Chinese Ceramics from the Meiyintang Collection, Sporting d'Hiver, Monte Carlo, 1996, no.104.

Literature: Regina Krahl, Chinese Ceramics from the Meiyintang Collection, vol. 2, London, 1994-2010, p.30, no.645.

Note: A copper-red painted bowl of similar size and decoration, formerly in the collection of W.W. Winkworth and now the collection of the Hon. Kate Trevelyan, on loan to the British Museum, is illustrated in Jessica Harrison-Hall, Ming Ceramics in the British Museum, London, 2001, p. 91, fig. 1.

Bowls of this type are more frequently found with a flared rim; for a complete piece in the Palace Museum, Beijing, from the Qing court collection see The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum. Blue and White Porcelain with Underglazed Red, Shanghai, 2000, vol. 1, pl. 222.

Poly Auction. A Romance Among Blooming Roses: The Meiyintang Collection of Three Dynasties Imperial Ceramics,  Hong Kong, 2 December 2021