Page 227 - Sotheby's Sir Quo Wei Lei Collection Oct. 3, 2018

Brilliantly painted in vivid tones of blue with a scene depicting – Ming Dynasty Blue-and-White Porcelains in the National
a figure in a carriage and three ladies in flowing robes, this Palace Museum Collection, Taipei, 2015-2016, cat. no. 35. An
bowl is reminiscent of the classic porcelains from the imperial example from the collections of M.C. Wang, Edward T. Chow,
kiln of the Xuande period. Led by an attendant holding a Mathias Komor and Myron S. Falk, depicting an immortal
lantern, the group departs from the pavilion and ventures into riding on a phoenix, was sold at Christie’s New York, 20th
a garden full of trees and flowers. The remarkable skills of September 2001, lot 134. See also a bowl excavated at the
the artisan are evidenced in the mastery of the brush. Special waste heap of the Ming imperial kilns in Zhushan, included in
attention has been given to the jagged garden rocks and the the exhibition Xuande Imperial Kiln Excavated at Jingdezhen,
architecture of the pavilion. The two-dimensional curved Chang Foundation, Taipei, 1998, cat. no. 104.
surface is successfully transformed into a continuous three- Bowls of this shape with figures are believed to be innovations
dimensional space, expanding beyond the distant mountains, of the Yongle period. A blue and white bowl without reign
framed but not limited by the passing clouds in the sky.
mark, from the collections of Wu Lai-hsi, Eumorfopoulos and
A closely related bowl of Xuande mark and period, clearly Sedgwick, is now in the British Museum (no. 1968,0422.30)
depicting a seated lady in a deer-drawn carriage and an and has been attributed to the Yongle period. Another bowl
attendant with a qin, in the collection of the National Palace without mark, formerly in the collections of Frederick M.
Museum, is included in Catalogue of the Special Exhibition of Mayer and T.Y. Chao Family Foundation, was exhibited in Ming
Selected Hsuan-te Imperial Porcelains of the Ming Dynasty, Blue-and-White: An Exhibition of Blue-decorated Porcelain of
Taipei, 1998, cat. no. 145. The museum has another bowl of the Ming dynasty, The Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, 1949-
the same design, but with a key-fret border on the foot and 1950, cat. no. 29 and dated to the early 15th century.
further adorned with a medallion of Three Friends of Winter Blue and white bowls with figures, similar to other classic
on the interior; see Liao Pao-show, Dianya fuli. Gugong cangci designs originated during the Ming dynasty, enjoyed a
[Elegance and exquisiteness: Porcelains in the collection of renaissance during the early Qing period, when Manchu
the Palace Museum], Taipei, 2013, p. 29, fig. 18, together with emperors eagerly attempted to strengthen their rule by
the first example, fig. 19.
utilising classic elements from the past to demonstrate their
For Xuande bowls of comparable size but painted with knowledge of China’s long history. A Kangxi-marked example
different scenes, see eight other bowls preserved in Taipei from the Qing court collection, decorated with the same
and published in Catalogue of the Special Exhibition of composition as the British Museum bowl, is preserved in
Selected Hsuan-te Imperial Porcelains of the Ming Dynasty, Beijing and illustrated in Gugong Bowuyuan cang Ming chu
op. cit., cat. nos 144, 146-152. The first example, painted with qinghua ci, [Early Ming blue-and-white porcelain in the Palace
four scenes corresponding to poems from the Tang to Ming Museum], Beijing, 2002, vol. 2, cat. no. 181.
dynasty, is also illustrated in Radiating Hues of Blue and White