Page 18 - Sotheby's NYC September 21 2022 Important Chinese Art

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A BLUE AND WHITE ‘DRAGON’ DISH Shanghai Museum, Shanghai, is published in Lu Minghua,
MARK AND PERIOD OF ZHENGDE Shanghai Bowuguan cangpin yanjiu daxi / Studies of the
Shanghai Museum Collections: A Series of Monographs.
the base with a four-character mark in underglaze blue within Mingdai guanyao ciqi [Ming imperial porcelain], Shanghai,
a double circle 2007, pl. 3-78. A dish of similar design but slightly smaller
Diameter 9½ in., 24.2 cm
in size in the Palace Museum, Beijing, is illustrated in Blue
and White Porcelain with Underglaze Red (II), The Complete
PROVENANCE Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum, Hong Kong,
Christie’s London, 6th June 1994, lot 117. 2000, pl. 63. Another example, from the Eumorfopoulos
Collection, illustrated in R.L. Hobson, The George
The design of five-clawed dragons among dense lotus scrolls
is perhaps the most characteristic pattern of the Zhengde Eumorfopoulos Collection of Chinese, Corean and Persian
period (1506-21) and appears on dishes, bowls and jars of Pottery and Porcelain, London, 1925-8, vol. IV, pl. VII, no. D
zhadou shape. Although the dragon-and-lotus design was 18, was sold in our London rooms, 29th May 1940, lot 211.
popular throughout the Ming period, this dense and even For recently sold examples, see two similar dishes of slightly
distribution of the decorative elements, and the soft tone of smaller dimension, the first, previously sold in our Hong Kong
cobalt blue, are particular to the Zhengde period. rooms, 28th October 1992, lot 41; Christie’s Hong Kong, 3th
December 2008, lot 2542 and again at Christie’s Hong Kong,
The design may be based on a Xuande prototype, although 30th November 2011, lot 2979 and another sold in these
no exact counterpart is known. For the most closely related rooms, 11th September 2019, lot 679. Such was the fame of
Xuande design, compare a dish centered with two dragons these dishes that an example is illustrated in the sixth scroll
facing forward among peony scrolls, or one with very similar of the Guwan tu (Pictures of Ancient Playthings) depicting
dragons among lotus scrolls, both illustrated in Mingdai treasured artifacts of the Yongzheng Emperor, now in the
Xuande guanyao jinghua tezhan tulu / Catalogue of the Percival David Collection at the British Museum, London.
Special Exhibition of Selected Hsüan-te Imperial Porcelains
of the Ming Dynasty, National Palace Museum, Taipei, 1998, A zhadou, a dish, and three different bowls with similar
cat. nos 188-189; an example of the latter design was sold dragon motifs are in the Palace Museum, Beijing, see op. cit.,
in our Hong Kong rooms, 4th April 2012, lot 3156. Compare pls 57, 63 and 69-71, one of the bowls with the Zhengde reign
also a Chenghua mark and period blue and white dragon dish mark replaced by a mark in Phags-pa script. A matching
from the Sir Percival David Collection in the British Museum, zhadou also in the Meiyintang Collection, illustrated in Regina
London, which represents a much more loosely composed Krahl, Chinese Ceramics from the Meiyintang Collection, vol.
forerunner to this design, illustrated in in Oriental Ceramics: 2, pl. 686, was sold in our Hong Kong rooms, 7th April 2011,
The World’s Great Collections, vol. 6, Tokyo, New York, and lot 60.
San Francisco, 1980, col. pl. 32.
⊖ $ 100,000-150,000
On Zhengde dishes of this type, there are two variations
in the placement of the dragons on the cavetto, which
are oriented either vertically or, as is the present case, 明正德 青花穿蓮龍紋盤
horizontally. The present dish also represents the larger
dimension of the variations. Two similarly large dishes are in 《正德年製》款
the British Museum, London, one with the dragons arranged
as on the present dish, both illustrated in Jessica Harrison- 來源
Hall, Ming Ceramics in the British Museum, London, 2001, pls 倫敦佳士得1994年6月6日，編號117
8:15 and 16. Another dish similar to the present piece in the

14 SOTHEBY’S COMPLETE CATALOGUING AVAILABLE AT SOTHEBYS.COM/N11074 PROPERTY FROM THE COLLECTION OF ALBERT Y.P. AND SARA K.S. LEE 15