Lot 42. A rare blue and white 'gardenia' dish, Mark and period of Hongzhi (1488-1505); 26 cm., 10 1/4 in. Estimate 1,800,000-2,500,000 HKD. Lot sold 2,900,000 HKD. Photo Sotheby's

the shallow flaring rounded sides supported on a tapered foot, softly painted in deep blue with a spray of gardenias with two blooms and two buds in the centre, enclosed on the cavetto with a spray of pomegranate bearing two ripe skin-bursting fruit, a spray of crab apple with a blossom and two fruit, a bunch of grapes on a vine and a lotus flower and pod tied with a ribbon, the exterior with a continuous scroll of roses, the base inscribed with a six-character reign mark in a double circle

PROVENANCE: Collection of Sir Harry Garner.
Collection of Ira and Nancy Koger.
Sotheby's New York, 27th November 1990, lot 3.

EXHIBITED: The John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art, Sarasota, Florida, 1985, no. 71.
The Jacksonville Art Museum, Florida, 1987, no. 71.
Evolution to Perfection. Chinese Ceramics from the Meiyintang Collection/ Evolution vers la perfection. Céramiques de Chine de la Collection Meiyintang, Sporting d'Hiver, Monte Carlo, 1996, cat. no. 124.

LITTERATURE: John Ayers, Chinese Ceramics. The Koger Collection, London, 1985, no. 71.
Regina Krahl, Chinese Ceramics from the Meiyintang Collection, London, 1994-2010, vol. 2, no. 682.

NOTE: After the Chenghua reign (AD 1465-87) the production of the imperial porcelain kilns appears to have been drastically reduced, and Hongzhi (AD 1488-1505) blue-and-white porcelain of any kind is incredibly rare. Only four other dishes have ever been sold at auction, all decorated with dragons, all sold at Sothebys: one from the Hay collection in London, 25th June 1946, lot 46; one from the Eumorfopoulos collection in London, 29th May 1940, lot 212; another in London, 3rd December 1963, lot 103 and one in Hong Kong, 29th April 1997, lot 548.

The present design is much better known in blue-and-yellow; compare the example from the Reach Family collection and later also the Meiyintang collection, illustrated in Krahl, op. cit., vol. 4, no. 1674, and sold in these rooms, 7th April 2011, lot 57; as well as blue-and-yellow examples of the Zhengde (AD 1506-21) and Jiajing (AD 1522-66) reigns in the Meiyintang collection, in Krahl, op. cit., vol. 2, nos. 683 and 684

Sotheby's. The Meiyintang Collection, Part III - An Important Selection of Imperial Chinese Porcelains. Hong Kong | 04 Apr 2012, 10:15 AM