Page 286 - 2019 September 13th Christie's New York Important Chinese Works of Art

1057
A WHITE-GLAZED ANHUA-DECORATED LOBED FOOTED BOWL
MING DYNASTY, 15TH CENTURY
The bowl is molded with seven lobes and the exterior is fnely incised on each
lobe with various plants and trees within double-line-border panels, which
are repeated on the correspondingly lobed and fared foot. The center of the
interior is incised with a fruiting peach trees below a band of forets incised on
both the top and the underside of the everted rim.
9¬ in. (24.6 cm.) wide
$50,000-70,000

This lobed bowl is covered in the soft lustrous white glaze and is subtly
enhanced with anhua or ‘secret’ decoration. Such decoration is almost
invisible from a distance, but was intended to be appreciated only by those
fortunate enough to examine the piece up close. A Xuande-marked bowl of
almost identical form and decoration rendered in underglaze cobalt blue was
excavated from the Ming imperial kiln site in Zhushan, Jingdezhen and is
illustrated in Imperial Porcelain of the Yongle and Xuande Periods Excavated
from the Site of the Ming Imperial Facotry at Jingdezhen, Hong Kong, 1989,
pp. 248-49, no. 83.
明十五世紀 白釉暗花花卉紋葵式缽

(detail)

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