Page 23 - Ming Porcelain Auction March 14, 2017 Sotheby's, NYC

Nigel Wood T he milky semi-translucent white glaze, combined with the thinly pot-
ted body of this dish, reveals the exceptional craftsmanship and quality
Chinese of materials achieved by potters at Jingdezhen in the early fteenth
century. The cold blue-tinted glazes of the Song dynasty, known as qingbai,
Glazes Their Origins Chemistry and developed rst into the more subtle, matte and opaque shufu type of the Yuan
period, before eventually reaching the superb smooth and pure-white of the
Recreation 1999 66 Yongle reign. Known as ‘sweet white’ (tianbai), this glaze is described by Nigel
Wood in Chinese Glazes. Their Origins, Chemistry and Recreation, London,
( De ning Yongle Imperial Art in the 1999, p. 66, as consisting almost entirely of glaze stone with little or no glaze
ash, which creates the brilliant smooth surface.
Early Fifteenth Century China
Numerous fragments of monochrome ‘sweet white’ wares have been
2005 35) recovered from the waste heaps of the Ming imperial kiln site, both in the early
and late Yongle strata, which testi es to their popularity at the Yongle imperial
69 1982 court, where the taste for blue and white developed only slowly. The color
1980 100 white was of the utmost importance in Buddhist ritual ceremonies, which the
emperor strongly patronized. It has also been suggested that the preference
1977 for white wares may have been politically motivated. The color white is
associated with lial piety and mourning, and the Emperor’s choice for white
129 may have been intended to provoke a negative reaction to the usurpation of his
nephew’s throne (see the catalogue to the exhibition De ning Yongle. Imperial
W W Winkworth Eumofopolous Art in the Early Fifteenth-Century China, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New
York, 2005, p. 35).
1940 5 30
A similar dish in the National Palace Museum, Taipei, was included in the
319 1963 2 19 23 Museum’s Special Exhibition of Early Ming Porcelains, Taipei, 1982, cat. no.
69; another is illustrated in Tôyô Tôji Meihin Zuroku/Masterpieces of Chinese
1988 5 17 38 and Korean Ceramics in the Ataka Collection. China, Tokyo, 1980, pl. 100; and
a third was included in the Min Chiu Society exhibition Monochrome Ceramics
Frederick M Mayer of Ming and Ch’ing Dynasties, Hong Kong Museum of Art, Hong Kong, 1977,
cat. no. 129. Other related dishes were sold at auction; one from the W.W.
1974 6 24 78 Winkworth and the Eumorfopolous collections, was sold twice in our London
rooms, 30th May 1940, lot 319, and 19th February 1963, lot 23; another was sold
2015 26 in our Hong Kong rooms, 17th May 1988, lot 38; and a third from the collection
of Frederick M. Mayer, was sold at Christie’s London, 24th June 1974, lot 78.
1997 11 5
Dishes decorated with dragons and three clouds on the interior are also known
1366 2003 10 27 in underglaze blue, such as a dish in the Palace Museum, Beijing, included in
625 the Museum’s exhibition Imperial Porcelains from the reigns of Hongwu and
Yongle in the Ming Dynasty, Beijing, 2015, cat. no. 26; and another sold in our
Hong Kong rooms, 5th November 1997, lot 1366, and again at Christie’s Hong
Kong, 27th October 2003, lot 625.