Lot 44. A blue and white bowl with figures, Mark and period of Wanli (1573-1619). Estimate HKD 250,000 — 350,000 (28,223 - 39,512 EUR). Lot Sold 1,625,000 HKD (183,449 EUR). Photo: Sotheby's.

with low, rounded sides rising from a gently tapered foot to a flared rim, the exterior painted in bright shades of cobalt blue with four ruyi-shaped panels divided by single floral sprays above and fruiting branches below, variously enclosing two figures playing chess, an official riding a horse, looking back towards attendants carrying books and scrolls, two officials with horses, and two officials greeting each other, all set in a garden landscape with attendants and boys, the interior centred with a medallion enclosing a stylised shou character between two confronting five-clawed dragons above turbulent waves crashing on a rock, all within double-line borders repeated at the rim, the base inscribed with a six-character reign mark within a double circle - 16.1 cm, 6 3/8  in.

Provenance: Ralph M. Chait Galleries, New York (according to label). 
Collection of Herschel V. Johnson (1894-1966). 
Sotheby’s London, 21st February 1967, lot 39 (£480). 
Bluett & Sons Ltd, London, 1967 (£480).
Collection of Roger Pilkington (1928-69), from 1967 (£480).

Note: Painted with scenes of figures within lobed cartouches, this bowl is notable for the particularly animated depiction and vivid cobalt in which the scenes have been rendered. A closely related bowl, was included in the exhibition Two Hundred Years of Chinese Porcelain, S. Marchant & Son Ltd., London, 1998, cat. no. 17.

Figural scenes were also popular in the preceding Jiajing reign; see a Jiajing mark and period bowl included in the exhibitionThe Fame of Flame. Imperial Wares of the Jiajing and Wanli Periods, Art Gallery, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, 2009, cat. no. 17, and sold in these rooms, 10th April 2006, lot 1674; another published in Sekai tōji zenshū/ Ceramic Art of the World, vol. 14, Tokyo, 1976, pls 214 and 215; and a third bowl sold in these rooms, 28th November 1978, lot 86.