Page 35 - Tianminlou Hong Kong Sotheby's April 3 2019

Fig. 1 Fig. 2 Fig. 3
Blue and white ‘rosette’ moonflask, bianhu, Ming dynasty, Blue and white ‘floral’ basin, Ming dynasty, Yongle period Blue and white ‘floral’ basin, Ming dynasty, Yongle period
Yongle period © Collection of the National Palace Museum, Taipei Qing court collection
Sotheby’s Hong Kong, 5th April 2017, lot 3608. © Collection of Palace Museum, Beijing
圖二
圖一 明永樂 青花纏枝花卉紋折沿盆 圖三
明永樂 青花輪花紋綬帶耳葫蘆扁壺 © 台北國立故宮博物院藏 明永樂 青花纏枝花卉折沿盆
香港蘇富比 2017 年 4 月 5 日，編號 3608 清宮舊藏
© 北京故宮博物院藏

ewers with angular spout (see Geng Baochang, ed., Gugong The closest comparisons to the present basin are two
Bowuyuan cang Ming chu qinghua ci [Early Ming blue-and- varieties with rim borders of pinks, which are both very
white porcelain in the Palace Museum], Beijing, 2002, vol. differently treated, however, one in the National Palace
1, pl. 92) and, together with asters, on the neck of ‘pilgrim Museum, Taiwan, the other in the Palace Museum Beijing.
flasks’, which are decorated on their sides with similar The piece in Taiwan, with a more curly hexafoil rosette in
rosettes as here seen in the centre (see the flask from the the centre and a rim border of pinks and large serrated
Edward T. Chow collection and the Idemitsu Museum of leaves, was included in the Museum’s exhibition Shi yu
Arts, Tokyo, sold in these rooms, 5th April 2017, lot 3608, xin: Mingdai Yongle huangdi de ciqi/Pleasingly Pure and
fig. 1). Lustrous: Porcelains from the Yongle Reign (1403-1424) of
The present carnation border also differs from other the Ming Dynasty, Taipei, 2017, catalogue pp. 131-3 (fig. 2),
versions. While Chinese flower designs at this period are together with two Yongle basins with wave rim borders, one
characterized by their naturalistic rendering, carefully with the same hexafoil rosette, pp. 128-30, the other with a
matching blooms with the right fruits and leaves, the more pointed rosette, pp 134-5, and two Qing copies with
present border seems to have been deliberately stylized wave rim border, one of Yongzheng, the other of Qianlong
to a fanciful flower pattern, perhaps conceived of as being mark and period, pp. 162-5. The basin in Beijing, with a
Islamic: small flower-heads of pinks are combined with rosette made up of petal panels and emblems, and a rim
little dotted blossoms, and leaves stylized to resemble border of pinks among thin frilly leaf scrolls, is published
ginkgo leaves. Borders with similar dotted florets appear in Geng, op.cit., 2002, vol. 1, pl. 27 (fig. 3), together with a
also on other extraordinary vessels, for example, on the version with wave border and a curly hexafoil rosette, pl.
rim of Yongle holy water vessels such as the piece from 28.
the Pilkington collection (Sotheby’s Hong Kong, 6th April A basin of this form of Xuande mark and period, with
2016, lot 15); and on oblong writing boxes such as the the more pointed hexafoil rosette, has a rim border of
example in the Sir Percival David collection (see Jessica quatrefoil panels with floral sprigs and scroll motifs; see
Harrison-Hall, ‘A New Concept for a Classic Collection. Yamato Bunkakan shozōhin zuhan mokuroku 7. Chūgoku
The Ming Ceramics in the Sir Percival David Collection at tōji/Chinese Ceramics from the Museum Yamato Bunkakan
the British Museum’, Arts of Asia, vol. 39, no. 3, May-June Collection, Illustrated Catalogue Series no. 7, Nara, 1977,
2009, p. 101, pl. 10). These are not mainstream designs of no. 134.
the imperial kilns.