The bowl is of deep conical form, flaring towards the rim and a lightly tapering foot, the centre is skillfully painted in unerglaze cobalt blue with a phoenix roundel with a male and a female bird among lotus scrolls. The inner sides are decorated with a similar design of phoenixes among lotus in anhua, and a blue classic-scroll border at the rim. The exterior is painted with a couple of large phoenixes among overall scrolling lotus and with a band of curly petal panels above the foot. The base is inscribed with a six character reign mark inside a double ring.

Provenance1. The Meiyingtang Collection, Switzerland
2. Sotheby’s Hong Kong, 5 November 1996, lot. 744
3. J.J. Lally & Co., New York
4. Sotheby's Hong Kong, 8 April 2013, lot. 35.

Literature: Regina Krahl, Chinese Ceramics from the Meiyintang Collection, London, 1994-2010, vol. 4, no. 1659.

Poly Auction Hong Kong. Imperial Affection - Ming Ceramics from the Meiyintang and Distinguished Collection, Hong Kong, 7 October  2019