Page 18 - Collection of Maureen Pilkington Hong Kong April 2017
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g. 1
Yellow-glazed dish, mark and period of Chenghua
© Collection of Shanghai Museum
Julian Thompson, ‘List of Patterns of Chenghua Porcelain Two larger dishes with straight rim are recorded by Thompson
in Collections Worldwide’, in The Emperor’s broken china. to be preserved in the Palace Museum, Beijing, one of them
Reconstructing Chenghua porcelain, Sotheby’s, London, illustrated in The Complete Collection of Treasures of the
1995, p. 122 and p. 128 (M6), lists only two yellow Chenghua Palace Museum. Monochrome Porcelain, Hong Kong, 1999, pl.
companion dishes, of the same shape and size, one in the 35. Two yellow Chenghua dishes from the Sir Percival David
Shanghai Museum, illustrated in Lu Minghua, Shanghai Collection in the British Museum, are illustrated in Rosemary
Bowuguan cangpin yanjiu daxi/Studies of the Shanghai Scott & Stacey Pierson, Flawless Porcelains: Imperial
Museum Collections : A Series of Monographs. Mingdai Ceramics from the Reign of the Chenghua Emperor, London,
guanyao ciqi [Ming imperial porcelain], Shanghai, 2007, pl. 1995, pls 29 and 30, both larger.
3-68 ( g. 1); and one, with the same later engraved mark as
the present dish, from the collection of Mr and Mrs R.H.R. One further piece is recorded in the Nanjing Museum, listed
Palmer, sold in our London rooms, 28th May 1968, lot 99; in Thompson, loc.cit. (M6a); one from the Eumorfopoulos
a third companion dish has since been published, in the collection in the Victoria & Albert Museum, London, was
collection of the Palace Museum, Beijing, see Zhongguo taoci included in the exhibition Ming and Ch’ing Porcelain, Bluett &
quanji [Complete series on Chinese ceramics], Shanghai, Sons, London, 1933, cat. no. 8, pl. V; one from the Ferdinand
1999-2000, vol. 13, pl. 35. N. Schiller collection is on display in the Bristol Museum and
Art Gallery (N2649); one from the collection of Severance
The inventory of the holdings of the National Palace Museum, A. and Greta Millikin in the Cleveland Museum of Art was
Gugong ciqi lu [Record of porcelains from the Old Palace], included in the Museum’s exhibition The World of Ceramics,
lists seven plain yellow dishes of Chenghua mark and period in Cleveland, 1982, cat. no. 129; and two others were sold in our
the collection, three slightly larger ones of similar shape, with London rooms, one from the collection of Enid and Brodie
Lodge, 10th December 1968, lot 119; the other from the
ared rim, three with straight rim, and one with ared rim and collection of Ivo Pakenham, 7th April 1981, lot 250.
yellow exterior but white interior, covered with a transparent
instead of a yellow glaze; four of these were included in the The present dish has a surprising history, as it was bought
exhibition Chenghua ciqi tezhan/Special Exhibition of Ch’eng- at Sotheby’s by John Sparks Ltd for £ 2,200, with Bluett &
hua Porcelain Ware, 1465-1487, National Palace Museum, Sons being the underbidders with a bid from Lord Cunli e at
Taipei, 2003, cat. nos 90-93. £ 2,000. A year later the dish reappeared at auction and was
bought by Bluett’s for £ 170, and sold on to Roger Pilkington
for £ 480.
16 SOTHEBY’S 㬴ჹ℁
