Lot 148. A blue and white 'lotus bouquet' dish, Ming Dynasty, 15th century; 27.8cm., 11in. Estimate 200,000-300,000 GBP. Lot sold 241,250 GBP. Photo Sotheby's

the rounded sides rising from a tapered foot to a lipped rim, painted in the centre in vivid tones of cobalt-blue with a lotus bouquet of thin lotus stalks, arrowhead, pondweed and millet tied together with a ribbon, enclosed on the cavetto with a composite floral scroll of camellia, chrysanthemum, lotus and peony, all below a classic scroll band, the exterior painted with a similar composite scroll between a keyfret border at the rim and a classic scroll band at the base, the unglazed base fired to a buff tone with russet spots.

Note: A closely related example is illustrated in Regina Krahl, Chinese Ceramics from the Meiyintang Collection, vol. II, London, 1994, pl. 665; two dishes are inluded in John Alexander Pope, Chinese Porcelains from the Ardebil Shrine, Washington, 1956, pls 29.16-17; another, from the collection of His Excellency Henri Beduwe, Belgian Ambassador to Lebanon, was sold in these rooms, 15th April 1980, lot 235; and a fifth dish was sold twice at Christie's Hong Kong, 28th October 2002, lot 691, and again, 1st December 2010, lot 2803, from the Greenwald collection.

Compare also dishes of this decoration, but of larger size, such as one illustrated in Porcelain of the National Palace Museum. Blue-and-White Ware of the Ming Dynasty, bk. 2, pt. II, Hong Kong, 1963, pl. 59; and another included in the exhibition Chinese Porcelain, The S.C. Ko Tianminlou Collection, pt. 1, Hong Kong Museum of Art, Hong Kong, 1987, cat. no. 10.

Sotheby's. Fine Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art. London | 09 Nov 2011