Lot 20. A fine blue and white barbed dish, Ming dynasty, Yongle period (1403-1424); 38.3 cm., 15 1/8  in. Estimate 1,800,000 - 2,500,000 HKD (177,722 — 246,836 EUR). Lot sold 3,880,000 HKD (383,090 EUR).  © Sotheby's 2013

the shallow rounded sides divided into twelve bracket foliations, rising from a short circular tapered foot to a barbed everted rim, beautifully painted in graded shades of cobalt accented with 'heaping and piling', the interior with a central peony surrounded by blooms of camellia, rose, lotus and hibiscus, all wreathed by interlocked meandering stems within a barbed double-line border, further encircled around the sides by detached sprays of peony, chrysanthemum, pomegranate, hibiscus, morning glory and lotus, each repeated twice and paired across the dish, below a border of scrolling ruyi heads within double blue lines at the rim, the exterior painted with similar detached floral sprays within double-line borders, the base and beveled footring left unglazed.

Literature: Regina Krahl, Chinese Ceramics from the Meiyintang Collection, London, 1994-2010, vol. 2, no. 663.

Note: A dish of this design in the National Palace Museum, Taiwan, was included in the exhibition Mingdai chunian ciqi tezhan mulu/Catalogue of a Special Exhibition of Early Ming Period Porcelain, National Palace Museum, Taipei, 1982, pl. 37; another in the National Museum of China is published in Zhongguo Guojia Bowuguan guancang wenwu yanjiu congshu/Studies on the Collections of the National Museum of China. Ciqi juan [Porcelain section], Mingdai [Ming dynasty], Shanghai, 2007, pl. 20.

An example from the Qing court collection and still in the Palace Museum, Beijing, is illustrated in Geng Baochang, ed., Gugong Bowuyuan cang Ming chu qinghua ci [Early Ming blue-and-white porcelain in the Palace Museum], Beijing, 2002, vol. 2, pl. 134, where it is attributed to the Xuande period and called an excellent work of the Xuande official kilns; a second, broken, piece of this design in the Palace Museum, Beijing, is published in Geng Baochang, ed., Gugong Bowuyuan cang gu taoci ciliao xuancui [Selection of ancient ceramic material from the Palace Museum], Beijing, 2005, vol. 1, pl. 107; another dish in the Shanghai Museum, also attributed to the Xuande period, is illustrated in Lu Minghua, Shanghai Bowuguan zangpin yanjiu daxi/Studies of the Shanghai Museum Collections : A Series of Monographs. Mingdai guanyao ciqi [Ming imperial porcelain], Shanghai, 2007, pl. 1-18.

Three such dishes from the Ardabil Shrine are in the National Museum of Iran, Tehran, see John Alexander Pope, Chinese Porcelains from the Ardebil Shrine, Washington, D.C., 1956 (rev. ed., London, 1981), pl. 35; and a dish in the British Museum is shown next to a related pottery copy from Iznik in Turkey in Jessica Rawson, Chinese Ornament. The Lotus and the Dragon, London, 1984, fig. 163.

Dish, Iznik, Ottoman dynasty, circa 1535-1545. Black, green, manganese, cobalt painted and glazed ceramic, pottery. Height: 7.6 centimetres, Diameter: 38.9 centimetres (rim), Diameter: 20.5 centimetres (base). Bequeathed by Miss Edith Godman, 1983, G.33 © The Trustees of the British Museum.

Porcelain serving dish with a bracketed rim and underglaze blue decoration, Ming dynasty, Yongle period (1403-1425). Height: 7.6 centimetres, Diameter: 38 centimetres, Weight: 2.4 kilograms. Donated by Mrs Walter Sedgwick, 1937,1012.1 © 2017 Trustees of the British Museum.

Although examples of this exact design have not been recorded from the excavations of the Ming imperial kiln site, similar large dishes of this form, painted with related designs, have come to light in the Yongle stratum of the site; see, for example, the dish published in Jingdezhen Zhushan chutu Yongle guanyao ciqi [Yongle Imperial porcelain excavated at Zhushan, Jingdezhen], catalogue of an exhibition at the Capital Museum, Beijing, 2007, pl. 68.

Sotheby's. The Meiyintang Collection, Part V - An Important Selection of Imperial Chinese Porcelains, Hong Kong, 08 avr. 2013