Page 41 - Bonhams, Fine Chinese Art, London November 3, 2022

Firstly, the resist technique as used on the present lot, was difficult
to achieve successfully. Experiments with reserve decoration on blue
and white wares exist from the Yuan dynasty (1279-1368), but they
did not achieve such a pleasing crisp contrast between the blue and
white areas, as the Xuande specimens so finely display. There are
two theories as to how the reserve decoration was achieved on the
present dish: one is that the dish was first covered with a solid blue
ground, which was then scraped away once it dried to reveal the Image courtesy of the Palace Museum, Beijing
design. A transparent glaze was then applied before firing took place;
see Imperial Porcelain Excavated at Jingdezhen, Taipei, 1998, p.257.
A second theory is that the design was first incised, then covered with
white or transparent glaze, the blue glaze was then applied around
the design. The six-character mark is inscribed in underglaze blue in
a reserved horizontal cartouche beneath the rim, as dishes of such
large size always had an unglazed base as it needed support during
firing. The overall effect was much more refined than the Yuan dynasty
examples, with the surface being more smooth and even, and without
any gaps between the blue and white.

Secondly, the extensive use of cobalt-blue, made dishes such as the
present lot extremely expensive, and limited to small scale production.
Cobalt-blue was still imported from Central Asia. As a result, mass
production of either monochrome blue wares or white-on-blue wares,
such as the present lot, was limited. For example, the Palace Museum
in Beijing has over 1570 Xuande period pieces of porcelain in its
collection, but only seven are monochrome blue wares and seven are
white-on-blue. The expense of using cobalt, as well as the technical
difficulties involved in producing wares with reserved decoration, made
a large-scale production of these wares largely impractical, even for
the Imperial kilns. Apart from occasional trials, this style of decoration
was largely abandoned after the Xuande reign, to be properly revived
again only in the Yongzheng period (1723-1735). The Museum of Oriental Ceramics, Osaka, illustrated

Only a few related blue and white reserve-decorated dishes, Xuande in Art of the World, vol.14, Tokyo, 1976, pl.30.
mark and period, are known. See one related blue dish with flowers
and fruits reserved in white, Xuande six-character mark and of the
period, illustrated by R.Krahl, Chinese Ceramics from the Meiyintang
Collection, vol.4, London, 1994-2010, no.1667. See also two related
smaller dishes, Xuande six-character marks and of the period,
illustrated in Catalogue of the Special Exhibition of Selected Hsuan-te
Imperial Porcelains of the Ming Dynasty, Taipei, 1998, nos.193 and
198. Compare also with a related blue and white dish decorated with
reserved decoration of fruits and flowers, without a reign mark but
attributed to the Xuande period, illustrated by J.Harrison-Hall, Ming
Ceramics in the British Museum, London, 2001, no.4:41.

Sotheby’s New York, 15 March 2017, Lot 6
FINE CHINESE ART | 39