Page 56 - Sotheby's Asia Week March 2024 Chinee Art

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A FINELY CARVED ‘LONGQUAN’ CELADON- 明永樂 / 宣德 龍泉窰青釉四季花卉紋盌
GLAZED ‘FLORAL’ BOWL, MING DYNASTY,
YONGLE / XUANDE PERIOD 來源：
wood cover, Japanese wood box (5) 日本私人收藏
Diameter 8 in., 20.2 cm
PROVENANCE
Japanese Private Collection.
Covered in an attractive, lustrous glaze, the present bowl
is an exemplary example of the height of production at the
Longquan kilns during the early Ming dynasty.
Towards the end of the Hongwu Emperor’s reign, the
Statutes of the Great Ming recorded an edict governing
the production of ceramics at the kilns of Jingdezhen and
Longquan. Issued in the 26th year of Hongwu’s reign,
corresponding to 1393, the edict set in place an imperial
design system in which all ceramic designs were to be
designed and approved by the court before being sent to the
two kilns for production. Thus, during this period of time and
especially during the proceeding Yongle and Xuande reigns,
Longquan wares and blue and white Jingdezhen porcelain
shared similar, if not the same, designs and decorative
patterns. Similarly, the lotus scrolls and design on the
present bowl, can also be found in contemporary blue and
white porcelains of the Yongle and Xuande reigns.
A bowl of similar form and design, illustrated in Julian
Thompson, ‘Chinese Celadons, the Collection of Mr. and
Mrs. Jack Chia’, Arts of Asia, November-December 1993,
fig. 18, was sold in our Hong Kong rooms, 5th November
1996, lot 634. Compare also a bowl in the Idemitsu Museum,
Tokyo, illustrated in Chinese Ceramics in the Idemitsu
Collection, Tokyo, 1987, pl. 604.
⊖ $ 40,000-60,000

108 SOTHEBY’S COMPLETE CATALOGUING AVAILABLE AT SOTHEBYS.COM/N11410 109