Lot 3169. A blue and white 'Lotus' Dish, Mark and period of Wanli (1573-1619); 20 cm., 7 7/8 in. Estimate  600,000-800,000 HKD (58,715 — 78,286 EUR). Lot sold 1,220,000 HKD (119,387 EUR). Photo Sotheby's

moulded in the form of an open lotus flower, with two tiers of scalloped petals rising from a short straight foot to a barbed rim, painted in rich cobalt tones, the interior centred with a Sanskrit character fo encircled within a double frieze of ruyi, the inner row of petals decorated with tassels and dots, the upper one with trefoiled swirls, the exterior with alternating Sanskrit characters and composite flower sprigs above a row of finely outlined projecting petal tips and a band of overlapping petals around the foot, the recessed base inscribed with the six-character reign mark within double circles in underglaze blue. 

PROVENANCE: The Manno Art Museum (no. 413).
Christie's Hong Kong, 28th October 2002, lot 529.

NOTE: Compare a similar dish in The Baur Collection, Geneva, illustrated in John Ayers, Chinese Ceramics in the Baur Collection, Geneva, 1999, vol. I, p. 132, no. 79.

Sotheby's. Fine Chinese Ceramics & Works of Art. Hong Kong | 04 avr. 2012 www.sothebys.com