Lot 86. A molded blue and white 'lotus' dish, Mark and period of Wanli (1573-1620). Diameter 7½ in., 19.1 cm. Estimate: 30,000 - 50,000 USD. Lot sold: 75,600 USD. © Sotheby's 2021

formed as a flowerhead with two radiating layers of sixteen petals surrounding a lança character at the center, the tips of the outer petals painted with trefoils and the inner petals with ruyi heads, the exterior painted with lança characters alternating with floral sprays above a tier of molded petals painted with fine striations and an inner band of painted stylized leaves, the base with a six-character mark within a double circle in underglaze blue, wood stand.

From the Collection of Bruce Dayton and Ruth Stricker Dayton.

Provenance: Marchant, London, 24th March 2000.

Note: Similar dishes are housed in the Shanghai Museum, Shanghai, illustrated in Lu Minghua, Shanghai bowuguan cangpin yanjiu daxi: Mingdai guanyao ciqi [Ming imperial porcelain], Shanghai, 2007, pl. 3-94; the National Palace Museum, Taipei, published in Porcelain of the National Palace Museum: Blue-and-White Ware of The Ming Dynasty, vol. VI, Hong Kong, 1963, pl. 20; the Baur Collection, included in John Ayers, The Baur Collection: Ming Porcelains and Other Wares, vol. II, Geneva, 1969, pl. A 185; and the British Museum, London, illustrated in Jessica Harrison-Hall, Catalogue of Late Yuan and Ming Ceramics in the British Museum, London, 2001, pls 11:101 and 11:102..

Sotheby's. Important Chinese Art, New York, 21 September 2021