Lot 103. The Leshantang Collection. A rare yellow-ground underglaze-blue 'gardenia' dish, Mark and period of Zhengde (1506-1521); 21.5 cm. Lot Sold 1,016,000 HKD (Estimate 600,000 - 800,000 HKD). © 2023 Gerhard Richter © Sotheby's 2023

potted with shallow rounded sides supported on a slightly tapered foot, the centre decorated with a gardenia spray bearing two five-petalled blooms and a bud, encircled by sprays of lotus, peach, grapevine and pomegranate, the exterior with a continuous rose scroll, all painted in shaded tones of cobalt blue reserved on a yellow-enamelled ground, the base left white and inscribed with a six-character reign mark within a double circle.

Literature: The Leshantang Collection of Chinese Porcelain, Taipei, 2005, pl. 19.

Exhibited: The Exquisite Chinese Artifacts, Collection of Ching Wan Society, Museum of History, Taipei, 1995, cat. no. 103.

Note: This gardenia design was first introduced in the Xuande reign and continued to be made with minor variations during the Cheunghua, Hongzhi, Zhengde reigns and till the Jiajing period, where blue-and-white and brown-and-white colour combinations were also produced. The yellow-and-blue colour scheme is technically challenging and costly as it requires the dish to be fired twice: first at a higher temperature with the design painted in cobalt, and then in a second, lower-temperature firing to vitrify the yellow lead glaze filling the left-in space.

his gardenia design was first introduced in the Xuande reign and continued to be made with minor variations during the Cheunghua, Hongzhi, Zhengde reigns and till the Jiajing period, where blue-and-white and brown-and-white colour combinations were also produced. The yellow-and-blue colour scheme is technically challenging and costly as it requires the dish to be fired twice: first at a higher temperature with the design painted in cobalt, and then in a second, lower-temperature firing to vitrify the yellow lead glaze filling the left-in space.

Similar examples are held in public museums and private collections. See an example in the Beijing Palace Museum, illustrated in The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum. Blue and White Porcelain with Underglazed Red, Shanghai, 2000, vol. II, pl. 233, together with examples from the preceding Chenghua and Hongzhi reigns, pls 230 and 231; another dish in the Shanghai Museum, illustrated in Lu Minghua, Studies of the Shanghai Museum Collections: Ming Imperial Porcelain, Shanghai, 2007, pl. 1-41; and two further examples in the British Museum (accession nos 1929,0722.11, and PDF,A.743 from the Sir Percival David Collection). For examples represented in prominent private collections, see one from the Meiyintang Collection, later sold in these rooms, 9th October 2012, lot 43; another formerly in the collections of R.H.R. Palmer, Roger and Maureen Pilkington, sold in these rooms, 5th April 2017, lot 4; another from the collection of the Toguri Museum of Art, sold twice in our London rooms in 1963 and 2004, and again in these rooms, 8th October 2013, lot 213; and a further example from the Tianminlou Collection, sold in these rooms, 2nd April 2019, lot 12.