A blue and white bowl. Xuande Mark and period.  Photo Sotheby's

the deep rounded sides rising from a straight foot to a flaring rim, painted to the interior in bright cobalt-blue tones with a lotus blossom borne on feathery leafy tendrils within a double circle in the centre, surrounded by an undulating composite floral scroll in the well and a classic floral scroll at the rim, the exterior similarly decorated with a composite floral scroll above a layer of lotus lappets, the rim bordered by a keyfret pattern and the foot encircled with a classic scroll band, inscribed to the base with a six-character Xuande mark within a double circle; 19.7cm., 7 3/4 in. Estimate 30,000-50,000 GBP

NOTE: A closely related example in the British Museum, London, is illustrated in Jessica Harrison-Hall, Ming Ceramics, London, 2001, pl. 4:24, together with a slightly smaller example, pl. 4:25; another of this size, from the Eumorfopoulos and Braithwaite Collections, was sold in our Hong Kong rooms, 30th April 1991, lot 12; and a third example formerly in the Alfred Clark collection is published in Chinese Porcelain. The S.C. Ko Tianminlou Collection, pt. 1, Hong Kong, 1987, pl. 21.

Compare bowls of this type but of slightly smaller dimensions, such as one included in Mary Tregear, Guide to Chinese Ceramics in the Ashmolean Museum , Oxford, 1966, pl. 30; another in the John A. Pope collection, included in the Exhibition of Ming Blue and White, Philadelphia Museum, Philadelphia, 1949, cat. no. 45; and a third example sold at Christie's Hong Kong, 27th May 2008, lot 1846.

For the inspiration of this bowl see one of this size included in the exhibition Imperial Porcelain of the Yongle and Xuande Periods Excavated from the Site of the Ming Imperial Factory at Jingdezhen, Hong Kong Museum of Art, Hong Kong, 1989, cat. no. 44, found in the late Yongle stratum.

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