Lot 1789. An unusual yellow-ground blue and white mantou bowl, 17th-18th century; 5 1/8 in. (13 cm.) diam. Estimate USD 8,000 - USD 12,000. Price realised USD 20,000. © Christie's Images Ltd 2011. 

With rounded sides rising from the countersunk base, the domed center of the interior painted with a quatrefoil motif encircled by a border of florets, below a band of conjoined and trefoils and a band of foliate scroll pendent from the rim, the exterior with a band of petals between borders of key fret and foliate scroll, all in blue and white reserved on a egg yolk-yellow ground, stand, box.

Provenance: Sotheby's, London, 7 April 1981, lot 282.
Greenwald Collection no. 81.

Note: The shape and design of this bowl are based on Ming dynasty blue and white prototypes such as the bowl dated early 15th century and the bowl with Xuande mark in the Percival David Foundation, illustrated by M. Medley, Illustrated Catalogue of Underglaze Blue and Copper Red, London, 1976, pl. XI, no. B625 and pl. XV, no. B697, respectively. A similar underglaze-blue bowl with yellow ground in the National Palace Museum, Taiwan, is illustrated in Blue-and-White Wares of the Ming Dynasty, Book II (Part 2), Hong Kong, 1963, pls. 58-58b. And another, also with yellow ground, is illustrated by R. L. Hobson, George Eumorfopoulos Collection Catalogue, London, 1927, vol. IV, pl. XV, no. D 90, where is it tentatively dated Jiajing period.