Lot 4. From the Private Collection of Joseph Lau. A fine yellow-ground and underglaze-blue 'gardenia' dish, Mark and period of Hongzhi (1488-1505); 26.2 cm. Lot sold: 7,560,000 HKD (Estimate: 3,000,000 - 5,000,000 HKD). © Sotheby's 2022. 

with shallow rounded sides rising from a tapered foot to an everted rim, freely painted in shaded tones of cobalt reserved on a rich yellow ground, the interior with a slightly recessed medallion enclosing a leafy branch bearing two five-petalled gardenia blooms and a tightly closed bud, encircled on the cavetto by fruiting branches of pomegranate, crab apple, grape and a beribboned lotus bouquet, all between double-line borders, the exterior with a continuous scroll of seven large blooming roses borne on a foliate stem, between double lines at the rim and foot, the base left white and inscribed in underglaze blue with a six-character reign mark within a double circle.

Note: The present piece is especially fine for its brilliant and striking combination of the blue and yellow colours and for the bold but perfectly arranged design of flowers and fruit. For Xuande and Chenghua prototypes in the British Museum, London, see Jessica Harrison-Hall, Ming Ceramics in the British Museum, London, 2001, nos. 4:43 and 6:16.

Hongzhi dishes of this design can be found in important museum and private collections; for example see two in the National Palace Museum, Taipei, illustrated in Minji meihin zuroku [Illustrated catalogue of important Ming porcelains], vol. II, Tokyo, 1977, pls. 72 and 73, together with their blue-and-white counterparts, pls 70 and 71; and one in the Palace Museum, Beijing, illustrated in The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum. Blue and White Porcelain with Underglazed Red (II), Shanghai, 2000, pl. 231, together with a Chenghua example, pl. 230, and a Zhengde example, pl. 233. Compare also a dish in the Shanghai Museum included in the exhibition Chugoku rekidai toji ten [Chinese ceramics through the ages], Seibu Art Museum, Tokyo, 1984, cat. no. 80.

From Western museum collections, compare a similar dish in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, illustrated in Oriental Ceramics. The World's Great Collections, vol. 2, Tokyo, 1982, col. pl. 16; one in the Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities, Stockholm, op.cit., vol. 8, Tokyo, 1982, pl. 226, from the Kempe Collection; another illustrated in Regina Krahl, Chinese Ceramics from the Meiyintang Collection, London, 1994-2010, vol. 4, no. 1674, and sold in these rooms, 7th April 2011, lot 57; and a fourth example from the Sir Percival David Collection, now in the British Museum, London, included in Margaret Medley, Illustrated Catalogue of Ming Polychrome Wares, London, 1966, cat. no. A740. The companion dish of the Percival David Foundation was sold in our London rooms, 15th October 1968, lot 108, and again in these rooms, 4th April 2017, lot 2, from the collection of Maureen Pilkington.

A similar dish from the T.Y. Chao collection was sold in these rooms, 31st October 1995, lot 387; and another from the Toguri Museum of Art, Tokyo, was sold in our London rooms, 9th June 2004, lot 22.

Sotheby's. Gems of Imperial Porcelain from the Private Collection of Joseph Lau, Hong Kong, 29 April 2022