A yellow-ground green and aubergine-enameled 'Buddhist lion' bowl, Ming Dynasty, 17th century.  Estimate 400,000 — 600,000 HKD. Unsold. Photo courtesy Sotheby's

the deep rounded sides resting on a short foot, the exterior decorated in green and aubergine enamels and outlined in black with three lion roundels interspersed with stylised ruyi-shaped clouds and auspicious emblems with small areas left in white, the interior similarly enamelled in green and aubergine with sprays of lotus, camellia and hydrangea, all reserved against a yellow ground, the white base inscribed in underglaze-blue with an apocryphal six-character Jiajing mark within a double-circle; 18.1 cm., 7 1/8  in.

Note: See another related 17th-century bowl with the same design and a Jiajing mark in the Baur Collection, illustrated in John Ayers, Chinese Ceramics in the Baur Collection, vol. 1, Geneva, 1999, pl. 122 [A252].

Sotheby's. Important Chinese Works of Art, Hong Kong, 07 avr. 2015