Page 73 - Ming Porcelain Auction March 14, 2017 Sotheby's, NYC

Fig. 1 A blue and white ‘phoenix and Fig. 2 A blue and white ‘phoenix’
dragon’ brush washer, Ming dynasty, brush washer, Xuande mark and
Xuande period period
© The Palace Museum, Beijing © The Palace Museum, Beijing

©
©

2 2005

Palace], Taipei, 1961-6, vol. 2, part 1, pp. 105f., plus one with dragon-and-phoenix 101 123 124 2002
design, ranging in size from 15.9 to 18.5 cm, and one washer of either design was 197 176
included in the Museum’s, 1998 exhibition, op.cit., cat. nos 182 and 183.
16 1
The Palace Museum, Beijing, owns a larger, but damaged piece decorated with
dragons within barbed panels, see Geng Baochang, ed., Gugong Bowuyuan Stacey Pierson Blue and
cang gu taoci ciliao xuancui [Selection of ancient ceramic material from
the Palace Museum], Beijing 2005, vol. 1, pl. 101; and smaller washers with White for China Porcelain Treasures in the
roundels of dragon and phoenix or phoenix only, where the center as well as the
roundels are lled either with paired dragon and phoenix, or a pair of phoenix, Percival David Collection 2004
illustrated in Geng Baochang, ed., Gugong Bowuyuan cang Ming chu qinghua
ci [Early Ming blue-and-white porcelain in the Palace Museum], Beijing, 2002, 20 T Endo
vol. 2, pls 123 and 124 ( gs 1 and 2), together with Qing copies of the present
dragon design, attributed to the Yongzheng reign, pl. 197, and of the phoenix 1988 11 15 117 1997
design, attributed to the Kangxi period, pl. 176.
4 29 405 2005 10 23
Another washer with barbed dragon panels, also considerably smaller (16.1 cm),
in the Sir Percival David collection in the British Museum is illustrated in Stacey 339
Pierson, Blue and White for China. Porcelain Treasures in the Percival David
Collection, London, 2004, pl. 20; one from the collection of T. Endo was sold three 1993 57
times in our Hong Kong rooms, 15th November 1988, lot 117, 29th April 1997, lot
405, and 23rd October 2005, lot 339, and is illustrated in Sotheby’s Hong Kong. 2003 221
Twenty Years, 1973-1993, Hong Kong, 1993, pl. 57, and Sotheby’s. Thirty Years
in Hong Kong: 1973-2003, Hong Kong, 2003, pl. 221; another was o ered on 8th 2007 4 8 841
April 2007, lot 841; and only one other, sold at Christie’s Hong Kong, 28th April
1996, lot 49, is of the same size as the present piece. 1996 4 28

49