The glaze is known under various terms, such as salan ('speckled blue'), xuehualan ('snowflake blue'), or qingjinlan ('metallic blue'). The cobalt glaze mixture is believed to have been blown onto the already fired porcelain body, and to have been fired on at a lower temperature (around 800°-900° C). In a period which otherwise aimed for smooth uniform monochromes, its intentional mottled effect and varied range of tones, from a light turquoise blue to an intense lapis lazuli colour, are unique. Recent excavations at the Jingdezhen imperial kiln site have shown that in the Xuande period experiments with this glaze were made on many different forms, but more unsuccessfully fired and deliberately broken examples were recovered, suggesting that the variations of the glaze all-too-often proved unacceptable to the kiln supervisors and were therefore rejected (for reconstructed fragmentary vessels from the Ming imperial kiln site, see Jingdezhen chutu Ming Xuande guanyao ciqi/Xuande Imperial Porcelain excavated at Jingdezhen, Chang Foundation, Taipei, 1998, pls 15, 114, and f 33-35). The low success rate probably explains the extremely short production period of this type. The technique was never properly revived after the Xuande reign, and when a blown-on cobalt glaze was recreated in the Kangxi reign of the Qing dynasty, the pigment was covered with a transparent glaze and fired at high temperature.

Extant examples include the snowflake-blue bowls with thick walls in the Capital Museum, Beijing, see Shoudu Bowuguan cang ci xuan [Selection of porcelains from the Capital Museum], Beijing, 1991, pl. 104; in the British Museum, London, from the Sir Percival David collection, illustrated in Regina Krahl and Jessica Harrison-Hall, Chinese Ceramics. Highlights of the Sir Percival David Collection, London, 2009, pl. 34; and in the Meiyintang collection, illustrated in Regina Krahl, Chinese Ceramics from the Meiyintang Collection, vol. 4, London, 2010, no. 1666. No example with this type of glaze appears to be preserved in the Palace Museum, Beijing, and the National Palace Museum, Taiwan, only holds an unmarked example of the more common bowl shape with thin walls and flared rim; see Mingdai Xuande guanyao jinghua tezhan tulu/Catalogue of the Special Exhibition of Selected Hsüan-te Imperial Porcelains of the Ming Dynasty, National Palace Museum, Taipei, 1998, cat. no. 131.

The shape of this piece, described in Chinese with the terms bo or guan, is also extremely rare and no such piece appears to have been offered at auction before. A unique monochrome red version, with a cover, discarded at the imperial kilns, was included in the exhibition Taipei, 1998, op.cit., pl. 28, together with two blue-and-white examples, pls 29-1 and 29-2; two other covered blue-and-white bowls of this shape in Taiwan included in Catalogue of the Special Exhibition of Selected Hsüan-te Imperial Porcelains of the Ming Dynasty, op.cit., cat. nos 1-2. The blue-and-white versions all show a peculiar row of thick blue dots inside the rim.

TWO ARTIST RECORDS

Chloe Ho (B. 1987), Midnight Blooms, executed in 2019, stamped with the artist's seal, ink and acrylic on paper, work size: 159.5 by 104.5 cm; 62 ¾ by 41 ¾ in., framed size: 170 by 115.5 cm; 66 ⅞ by 45 ½ in. Sold for HK$325,000 / US$41,912. Courtesy Sotheby's.

Chen Yingjie (B. 1991), Breaking - Loong Series II, signed in Chinese and Pinyin, dated 2020; signed in Pinyin and Chinese, inscribed in English and dated 2020 on the reverse, acrylic on canvas, work size: 80 by 140 cm; 31 ½ by 55 ⅛ in., framed size: 85 by 145 cm; 33 ½ by 57 ⅛ in.. Sold for HK$93,750 / US$12,090. Courtesy Sotheby's.