Lot 243. A rare blue and white and iron-red moulded 'lotus' dish, Wanli underglaze-blue six-character mark within double circles and of the period (1573-1619), 8 1/8 in. (21 cm.) diam. Estimate GBP 35,000 - GBP 45,000. Price realised GBP 49,250. © Christie's Images Ltd 2011

Crisply moulded as an open lotus bloom supported on a low straight foot, with two rows of overlapping petals encircling a central medallion enclosing a Tibetan/Sanskrit character bordered by bands of ruyi heads, the inner row of petals painted with trefoil motifs on the rounded tips and each thinly outlined with iron-red enamel, the outer lotus petals forming a barbed rim, the exterior painted with Tibetan/Sanskrit characters alternating with flower sprays above a row of projecting petal tips rising from a further narrow band of overlapping petals.

Provenance: The Tsui Museum of Art, Hong Kong, no. MPN018. 

Note: A similar dish with iron-red outlines is illustrated in Chinese Porcelain, The S.C.Ko Tianminlou Collection: Chinese Porcelain, Hong Kong Museum of Art, Hong Kong, 1987, no. 45.

Other examples of lotus-form bowls with Wanli marks are illustrated by J. Ayers, The Baur Collection, vol. II, Geneva, 1969, no. A185; by Wang Qing-zheng, Underglaze Blue and Red, Shanghai, 1987, pl. 101; by J. Harrison-Hall, Ming Ceramics in the British Museum, London, 2001, p. 313. Other recorded examples include one in Oriental Ceramics, The World's Great Collections, vol. 11, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Tokyo, 1982, no. 91. Another bowl of Wanli date, but unmarked, in the Institut Neerlandais, Paris, is illustrated by D. Lion-Goldschmidt, Ming Porcelain, New York, 1978, pls. 215 and 215a, where the author notes that these bowls were probably intended to hold offerings in Lamaist Buddhist temples.

Compare, also, the dish formerly in the Jingguantang Collection, sold in our New York Rooms, 20 March 1997, lot 81; and one sold in our Hong Kong Rooms, 27 May 2009, lot 1868. 

A late Ming blue and white moulded 'Lotus' dish,  Wanli six-character mark within double circles and of the period (1573-1619), 7 5/8 in. (19.4 cm.) diam. Sold for HKD 312,500 at Christie's Hong Kong, 27 May 2009, lot 1868. © Christie's Images Ltd 2011

Christie's. Fine Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art, 10 May 2011, London