Lot 1. A rare yellow-ground blue and white 'pomegranate flower' dish, Ming dynasty, Zhengde six-character mark within a double circle in underglaze blue and of the period (1506-1521); Diam. : 29,8 cm. Price realised EUR 315,000 (Estimate EUR 100,000 – EUR 150,000). © Christie's 2024

Property from an important European private collection.

Provenance: Previously from the collection of Hermann Graf von Arnim-Muskau (1903-1997).

Note: Dishes of this floral design in underglaze-blue against an enameled 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 stylized flower that may 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; and from the Manno Museum, Japan, sold at Christie's Hong Kong, One Man's Vision, 28 October 2002, lot 530. See another closely related dish, from the Greenwald collection, sold at Christie's Hong Kong, 1 December 2010, lot 2805 (HKD 5,780,000).

Christie's. Art d'Asie. Paris, 13 june 2024