Poly Auction. A Romance Among Blooming Roses: The Meiyintang Collection of Three Dynasties Imperial Ceramics, Hong Kong, 2 December 2021
A Yellow-Ground And Underglaze Blue ‘Pomegranate’ Dish, Mark And Period Of Zhengde (1506-1521)
Lot 3582. A Yellow-Ground And Underglaze Blue ‘Pomegranate’ Dish, Mark And Period Of Zhengde (1506-1521). H 33.5cm. Sold for HKD 1,560,000/USD 200,000 (Estimate HKD 1,000,000 - 1,500,000/USD 128,205 - 192,308). © Poly Auction Hong Kong Limited
The dish is finely potted with shallow sides and the centre is painted in shades of cobalt-blue with a branch of pomegranate growing two large blooms in profile, detailed with leaves and buds on a yellow ground. The cavetto is painted with four fruiting branches including peach, persimmon, lychee and cherry blossom between double-circle borders. The exterior is decorated with four lotus sprays, against a vibrant yellow enamel ground. The slightly concave base is applied with a transparent glaze.
Provenance: The Meiyintang Collection.
Exhibition: Evolution to Perfection: Chinese Ceramics fro the Meiyintang Collection, Sporting d'Hiver, Monte Carlo, 1996, no.110.
Literature: Regina Krahl, Chinese Ceramics from the Meiyintang Collection, vol. 2, London, 1994-2010, pp.72-73, no.685.
Note: Dishes of this floral design in underglaze-blue against an enamelled yellow ground first appeared in the Xuande period, such as the dish in the Edward Chow and T.Y. Chao collections, sold at Sotheby’s Hong Kong, 18 November 1986, lot 56. The style found much popularity in the mid-Ming period and was produced in dishes of varying sizes with either a pomegranate or a stylised flower that may possibly be identified as gardenia to the interior well. Published examples of this group of yellow-ground dishes bearing the Chenghua, Hongzhi, Zhengde and Jiajing marks are known.
Dishes measuring approximately 29 cm. in diameter appear to be the largest in size. For other Zhengde-marked dishes, cf., a dish in National Palace Museum, Taipei, Illustrated Catalogue of Ming Dynasty Porcelain, Book IV, CAFA, Hong Kong, 1963, pl. 13; a dish in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, illustrated in Oriental Ceramics, The World’s Great Collections, 1980, vol. 11, col. pl. 77; in Percival David collection, now at the British Museum, illustrated by R. Scott and R. Kerr, Ceramic Evolution in the Middle Ming Period, 1994, p. 23, no. 26; another is illustrated by J. Ayers, Far Eastern Ceramics in the Victoria and Albert Museum, pl. 154.