Lot 217. A rare blue and white anhua-decorated conical 'Herbaceous Peony' bowl, Mark and period of Xuande (1426-1435); 20.4 cm., 8 in. Estimation 1,500,000 — 2,000,000 HKD (150,896 - 201,194 EUR). Lot sold 2,320,000 HKD. Photo: Sotheby's.

finely potted with wide flaring sides supported on a straight foot, elegantly painted in deep tones of cobalt blue subtly accented with 'heaping and piling', the exterior with a continuous leafy scroll issuing six large herbaceous peony blossoms alternating with attendant buds below a single line fillet at the rim, all above two rows of overlapping petals and a double blue line encircling the foot, the interior centred with a mallow blossom surrounded on the walls by a peony scroll in anhua, the base inscribed in underglaze blue with a six-character reign mark within a double ring.

Provenance: Christie's New York, 29th March 2006, lot 422.

Note: This bowl represents the most exquisite type of ware produced in the imperial kilns during the Xuande reign. It is distinctive for its elegant shape and harmonious floral decoration which has been designed for a pure Chinese aesthetic and rendered in an intense cobalt-blue. Bowls of this type are known in two versions: those painted only in underglaze blue and the rarer type with the inclusion of anhua slip decorated floral scrolls adorning the interior, like the present piece. 

Two closely related examples in the National Palace Museum, Taipei, are illustrated in A Panorama of Ceramics in the Collection of the National Palace Museum. Hsuan-te (I), Taipei, 2000, pl. 107; and one on the Palace Museum, Beijing, is published in Gugong Bowuguan can Ming chu qing hua ci, vol. 2, Beijing, 2002, pl. 142. See also a bowl from the A.D. Brankson collection, included in Soame Jenyns, Ming Pottery and Porcelain, London, 1953, pl. 29B; one from the collections of Mr. and Mrs. Alfred Clark and T.Y. Chao, included in the Oriental Ceramic Society exhibition Chinese Blue and White Porcelain, London, 1953, cat. no. 78, sold in these rooms, 19th May 1987, lot 230; another from the Toguri Art Museum, illustrated in Zaidan hojin Toguri Bijutsukan zohin senshu seireki 2000 nen kinen zuroku, Tokyo, 2000, pl. 25, sold in our London rooms, 9th June 2004, lot 367; and a fourth example from the Edward T. Chow and Mr. and Mrs. Myron Falk collections, sold at Christie's New York, 15th October 2001, lot 135, and again in these rooms, 2nd May 2005, lot 506. 

These bowls were inspired by earlier bowls of the Yongle reign, such as one also withanhua floral scrolls from the Ardabil Shrine and now in the National Museum of Iran, Tehran, illustrated in John Alexander Pope, Chinese Porcelains from the Ardebil Shrine, Washington, 1956, pl. 48, and again in Takatoshi Misugi, Chinese Porcelain Collections of the Near East, Topkapi and Ardebil, vol. 3, Hong Kong, 1981, cat. no. A60. 

This refined design was much admired by the Qianlong emperor, who ordered precise copies of these Xuande bowls to be made by the imperial kilns. A Xuande bowl of this design was exhibited together with a Qianlong mark and period example, both from the Sir Percival David collection, in the exhibition, Elegant Form and Harmonious Decoration. Four Dynasties of Jingdezhen Porcelain, London, 1992, cat. nos. 34 and 168. 

Sotheby's. Important Ming Porcelain from a Private Collection. Hong Kong, 08 oct. 2013.