Lot 1735. A fine and rare early Ming blue and white 'Lotus bouquet' dish, Yongle period (1403-1424); 15 in. (38 cm.) diam. Estimate HKD 2,000,000 - HKD 3,000,000. Price realised HKD 4,207,500. © Christie's Image Ltd 2007

Painted in strong tones on the interior with a bouquet of lotus flowers, seed pod and leaves, and other aquatic plants tied together with a fluttering ribbon, encircled by three concentric rings and a composite floral scroll around the cavetto below a wave band, the exterior with a further floral scroll between classic scrolls at the rim and a key-fret band above the foot, the cobalt with extensive 'heaping and piling', the base unglazed, box. 

Provenance: J.M.Hu
A Japanese private collection

Note: This dish is often referred to as a 'bouquet' dish and belongs to an important group of early Ming blue and white wares together with 'grape' dishes, 'melon' dishes and 'dragon' dishes. See J. A. Pope, Chinese Porcelains from the Ardebil Shrine, 1981, p.92, where he discusses the thirty-four 'bouquet' dishes of varying sizes and with varying borders in the Ardebil Collection, showing the wide range of intensity of the cobalt within the dishes and the diversity of decoration, albeit based on a master pattern.

A smaller dish of the same design from the Shanghai Museum is illustrated,Underglaze Blue and Red, 1987, no.135; another from the National Palace Museum, Taipei, illustrated in Blue and White Ware of the Ming Dynasty, Book II, part 2, colour pl.38, included in the Special Exhibition of Early Ming Period Porcelain, Catalogue nos. 39 and 41; a third is illustrated in Chinese Ceramics in the Topkapi Saray Museum Istanbul, vol.II, no.10; another in the Ardebil Shrine is illustrated by Pope, ibid., pl.31, fig.29.21; another from the T.Y. Chao Collection was included in the Hong Kong Oriental Ceramic Society Exhibition, 1975, Chinese Blue and White Porcelain, Catalogue, no.8; and a further example from the S.C. Ko Tianminlou Collection is illustrated in the Catalogue, pt.I, colour pl.10. Compare a dish sold at Christie's London,16 November 1998, lot 55.