Page 286 - Christies Fine Chinese Works of Art March 2016 New York

THE PROPERTY OF A SOUTHEAST ASIAN COLLECTOR

1570

A RARE EARLY MING BLUE AND WHITE ‘LOTUS BOUQUET’ DISH
YONGLE PERIOD (1403-1425)

The dish is decorated in rich cobalt blue characteristically ‘heaped and pile’ with a central
ribbon-tied lotus plant bouquet incorporating saggitaria and a stalk of millet, encircled by a
band of composite foliate scroll composed of thirteen blossoms. A narrow band of classic scroll
at the rim is repeated on the exterior above a similar frieze and a lower border of key fret, all
within line borders. The base is unglazed.

13Ω in. (34.2 cm.) diam.

$100,000-150,000

The design on this dish is typically described as ‘lotus bouquet,’ as the majority of the fowers, pods and
leaves belong to the auspicious lotus plant. However, the bouquet also includes additional auspicious
plants, such as the arrow-shaped saggitaria sagittifolia, a symbol of both generosity and of food in
a time of shortage, and a stalk of millet, symbolizing an abundance of grain. Dishes with this ‘lotus
bouquet’ design belong to an important group of early Ming blue and white wares, together with ‘grape’
dishes, ‘melon’ dishes, and ‘dragon’ dishes. See J.A. Pope, Chinese Porcelains from the Ardebil Shrine,
Washington, D.C., 1956, p. 92, where he discusses the thirty-four ‘bouquet’ dishes of varying size and
with varying borders in the Ardebil Shrine Collection, showing the wide range of intensity of cobalt and
the diversity of decoration. Some of these variations can be seen, ibid., on pls. 30 and 31.

A dish of this shape and design was excavated from the Yongle stratum at the site of the imperial kiln at
Jingdezhen in 1994, and is illustrated in Imperial Hongwu and Yongle Porcelain excavated at Jingdezhen,
Chang Foundation, Taipei, 1996, pp. 144-45, no. 40. Compare, also, two other dishes of this pattern,
but of slightly larger size: one in the National Palace Museum, Taipei, (34.2 cm. diam.), illustrated in
Porcelain of the National Palace Museum: Blue-and-White ware of the Ming Dynasty, Book II, Part 2, Hong
Kong, 1963, pp. 146-7, pl. 59; and one in The Tianminlou Foundation, (34.7 cm. diam.), illustrated in the
catalogue of the Min Chiu Society exhibition, Joined Colors, Sackler Gallery, Washington, DC, 1993, p.
78, no. 7.
明永樂 青花一把蓮盤

(reverse)

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