Lot 1375. An early Ming-style blue and white deep bowl, 18th century; 6¾ in. (17 cm.) diam. Estimate 60,000 - USD 80,000. Price realised 290,500 USD. © Christie's Image Ltd 2010

With steep sides flaring in a curve to the rim, well painted in fifteenth-century style with a continuous lotus scroll above two bow-string bands and a border of lotus lappets above the short foot, the interior with apocryphal Xuande six-character mark in underglaze blue within a double circle, box.

Provenance: Sotheby's, London, 26 July 1966, lot 66.

Note: The unusual shape and decoration of this bowl are based on Xuande mark and period prototypes, such as the bowl with cover illustrated in the Catalogue of the Special Exhibition of Selected Hsüan-te Imperial Porcelains of the Ming Dynasty, National Palace Museum, Taipei, 1998, pp. 156-7, no. 51.

Christie's. Fine Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art, New York, 16 - 17 September 2010