Page 19 - FIsh Bowl Xuande Period, April 2017 Sotheby's
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g. 3 g. 4
Blue and white ‘ sh pond’ lobed bowl, mark and period of Xuande Blue and white ‘dragon roundel’ lobed bowl, mark and period of Xuande
© Jingdezhen Ceramics Archaeology Institute Sotheby’s Hong Kong, 16th November 1973, lot 135
Ming Dynasty, Taipei, 1998, cat. no. 140 ( g. 1), but two with shallow sides and thus nowhere near as striking as the
such bowls are listed in the inventory of the holdings of the present piece, which undoubtedly displays the design to best
National Palace Museum Gugong ciqi lu [Record of porcelains advantage. Compare a brush washer illustrated in Regina
from the Old Palace], Taipei, 1961-6, vol. 2, part 1, p. 124. No Krahl, Chinese Ceramics from the Meiyintang Collection,
comparable piece has ever been o ered at auction or seems London, 1994-2010, vol. 4, no. 1653, sold in these rooms, 7th
to be preserved in any other public or private collection. April 2011, lot 54, where the other three washers of this design
are listed; for a dish of this design see the National Palace
The Ming imperial kilns experimented with this design also on Museum exhibition 1998, op.cit., cat. no. 180, illustrated
even smaller bowls: a related mallow-shaped bowl (15 cm) together with a dish with a lotus pond without shes, cat. no.
discarded at the kilns, also of deep bell shape and painted 179. Fragmentary washers and dishes of this design were also
with a similar design, has been reconstructed from sherds recovered from the waste heaps of the kilns, see the Chang
excavated at the Jingdezhen kiln sites, and included in the Foundation exhibition, 1998, op.cit., cat. nos 19-2 and 86-2.
exhibition Jingdezhen chutu Ming Xuande guanyao ciqi/
Xuande Imperial Porcelain excavated at Jingdezhen, Chang The design was also copied later in the Ming and probably the
Foundation, Taipei, 1998, cat. no. 103-2 ( g. 3), together with Qing (1644-1911) dynasty. A very shallow mallow-shaped bowl
a related fragmentary bowl of circular section (15.8 cm), cat. (or deep dish) with a similar sh pond design, of Jiajing mark
no. 103-1. and period (1522-66), in the National Palace Museum, Taipei,
was included in the Museum’s exhibition Fu shou kang ning.
The present bowl shape was also used for a Xuande bowl Jixiang tu’an ciqi tezhan tulu/Good Fortune, Long Life, Health,
decorated with ten small dragon roundels and a band of petal and Peace: A Special Exhibition of Porcelains with Auspicious
panels, but to strikingly di erent e ect; see Sotheby’s Hong Designs, Taipei, 1995, cat. no. 72; and a very large bowl of
Kong – Twenty Years, 1973-1993, Hong Kong, 1993, pl. 60, for similar shape and design in the same museum, inscribed with
a bowl sold in these rooms, 16th November 1973, lot 135 ( g. a Xuande reign mark and still included as being of the period in
4). On the formal ‘dragon’ bowl, the indentations emphasize the Museum’s 1960s inventory Gugong ciqi lu, op.cit., p. 124,
the solemnity of the design; on the halcyon ‘ sh pond’ bowl, was included as a later copy in the Museum’s exhibition Ming
the undulant sides highlight the vivacious air of the painterly Xuande ciqi tezhan mulu/Catalogue of a Special Exhibition of
motif. Hsuan-te Period Porcelain, National Palace Museum, Taipei,
1980, cat. no. 28; it probably dates from the Qing period.
A reduced version of this sh pond design can also be found
on four brush washers of Xuande mark and period, of similar
mallow-shaped section, and on some circular dishes, all
FISHES IN THE IMPERIAL POND 17
