Page 58 - Bonhams Fine Chinese Art Nov 2013 London
P. 58
A blue and white bowl, Xuande mark and period;
image courtesy of the Palace Museum, Beijing
The present lot is a fine example of the blue and white floral scroll In Ming Ceramics in the British Museum, London, 2001, J.Harrison-
bowls made in the Imperial kilns at Jingdezhen, and showcases Hall remarks that although the Xuande Emperor reigned for only
some of the key technical and stylistic innovations developed during ten years, the quantity of pieces produced in this short period is
the Xuande reign. In particular, the Xuande period saw the successful astonishing. Not only are thousands of pieces surviving now in
development of the use of potangqing cobalt, mined domestically museums, including 2000 official Xuande porcelains in the National
in China. This produces the typical ‘heaping and piling’ effect from Palace Museum, Taipei, but also a huge volume of shards from this
uneven application of the pigment but the blue is nevertheless usually period have been found at the Imperial kiln site at Zhushan, testifying
softer and more consistent than in the preceding Yongle period. to the high standards required during the period, and the harsh fate
It was also during the Xuande reign that the characteristic Imperial suffered by the pieces which failed to meet such standards. The
reign mark was developed, with the name of the dynasty and the need for vast quantities of bowls and other food vessels required
Emperor written in underglaze blue, becoming the standard method by the court can be understood in the light of the Xuande Emperor
of marking Imperial wares until after the collapse of the Qing Dynasty reputedly dining three times a day and requiring over a hundred
and the end of the Imperial Chinese dynasties in 1911. bowls each time.
Floral scroll bowls come with a range of minor variations in design;
the present lot appears to represent a set with one in the Palace
Museum, Beijing, illustrated in The Complete Collection of Treasures
of the Palace Museum: Blue and White Porcelain with Underglazed
Red (I), Hong Kong, 2000, no.152, and also one in the Shanghai
Museum illustrated by Wang Qingzheng, Underglaze Red & Blue,
Hong Kong, 1987, no.131. Other examples of related bowls with
floral scrolls but with leiwen and classic scroll decorative bands at
the foot and rim, rather than dots, are in the British Museum, see.
J.Harrison-Hall, ibid., nos.4:24 and 4:25.
56 | Bonhams
