Page 17 - Ming Porcelain Auction March 14, 2017 Sotheby's, NYC

L arge dishes such as the present example were an innovation of the Yuan
dynasty and their continued production during the Yongle reign may re ect
the Yongle Emperor’s interest in having imperial kilns create porcelains
suitable for export. Even today, more dishes of this type are preserved in the
royal collections of the Safavids in Iran and the Ottomans in Turkey than in
China or elsewhere. Their availability appears, however, to have been strictly
controlled by the court and their sale may have been e ected directly through
the eets of Zheng He (1371-1435), the imperial eunuch who led six immense
maritime expeditions westwards as far as East Africa for the Yongle Emperor.
Excavations of the Ming imperial kiln site at Zhushan in Jingdezhen have
shown that Yongle dishes of this type can be attributed to the early part of the
reign as shards of such large blue and white vessels have been discovered, for
example, in stratum three of the Zhonghua Road excavation site in Jingdezhen
immediately above the Hongwu stratum.

One of the most striking decorative innovations of early fteenth century wares
was the use of separate oral sprays or bunches of owers in the cavetto
instead of the continuous scroll. The heavy wreath of lotus or peony found on
fourteenth century dishes gave way to a series of delicate and more varied
motifs. Twelve ower sprays consisting of two sets were commonly repeated
so that each ower was diametrically opposite its pair. With each ower
spray encircled by a stem with leaves, the present dish is characteristic of the
delicate variety that occurred within Yongle design schemes.