Lot 2927. A very rare gilt and anhua-decorated green-enamelled ‘Deer and Phoenix’ bowl, Jiajing six-character mark in underglaze blue within a double circle and of the period (1522-1566); 4 ¾ in. (12 cm.) diam. Estimate HKD 800,000 - HKD 1,500,000 (USD 102,636 - USD 192,443). Price realised HKD 1,000,000. © Christie's Images Ltd 2019. 

The exterior is covered with an iridescent green enamel with dark mottling, embellished with gilt depicting a pair of deer amidst butterflies, cranes and flowering trees, incised around the sides in anhua decoration with a pair of phoenix above petal lappets. The interior is left plain, the centre incised with a roundel enclosing a phoenix amidst clouds. The base is covered with clear glaze, box. 

Provenance: Sold at Sotheby’s Hong Kong, 8 April 2007, lot 738. 

Note: The application of thin, lace-like gilding on a porcelain surface is sometimes known as the kinrande technique, a Japanese term which originally means textile with gold brocade. Kinrande porcelains were popular during the Jiajing period, featuring gilt decorations commonly applied on green, white, yellow, iron-red or dark-blue grounds. However, the combination of kinrande and anhua decorations as seen on the current bowl is extremely rare, and appears to be a novel design by the Imperial kilns during the Jiajing period.

Two kinrande bowls decorated with lotus scrolls on green-enamelled grounds are in the British Museum, illustrated by J. Harrison-Hall, Ming Ceramics in the British Museum, London, 2001, pls. 9:65 and 66. Both bowls lack the anhua decorations found on the present lot, and are inscribed on the bases with the mark changing fugue ‘long life, riches and honour’, unlike the Jiajing reign mark inscribed on the present lot. 

Bowl with green glaze and kinrande decoration, Ming dynasty, Jiajing period, AD1522–1566. Porcelain with underglaze cobalt-blue, green glaze and gilding, 10,8 x 22 cm. On loan from Sir Percival David Foundation of Chinese Art, PDF,A.549. © The Trustees of the British Museum 

 Porcelain bowl with underglaze blue, overglaze green and 'kinrande' decoration, underglaze blue with a round coin-style mark: 'Chang ming fu gui' [Long life, riches and honour], Jiajing period, circa 1540-1600, British Museum, Franks.481. © The Trustees of the British Museum

Christie's. An Important Collection Of Chinese Ceramics From A Private Collector, Hong Kong, 27 November 2019