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           A YELLOW!GROUND UNDERGLAZE BLUE           This dish is particularly rare for its large size and six-character
           ‘GARDENIA’ DISH                           mark on the base, and only one other example appears to
           ZHENGDE MARK AND PERIOD                   have been published, excavated in Beijing and now in the
                                                     Capital Museum, Beijing, illustrated in Zhongguo taoci quanji
           the shallow rounded sides rising from a short tapered foot to   [Complete series on Chinese ceramics], vol. 13, Shanghai,
           an everted rim, painted in various tones of cobalt on a rich   1999, pl. 147. A larger dish (29.5cm), also with a six-character
           yellow ground, the interior painted with a medallion enclosing   mark, from the Qing Court collection and still in Beijing, is
           a leafy branch bearing two Þ ve-petalled gardenia ß owers,   illustrated in The Complete Collection of Treasures of the
           encircled in the cavetto with branches of pomegranate, crab   Palace Museum. Blue and White Porcelain with Underglazed
           apple, grape and a bouquet of lotus, between double line   Red (II), Shanghai, 2000, pl. 232, together with a smaller
           borders, the underside with a continuous scroll of seven large   dish with a four-character mark on the base, pl. 233. Further
           blooming roses borne on a foliate stem, between double   smaller dishes with six-character marks include one in the
           lines at the rim and foot, the base left white and inscribed   British Museum, London, published in Jessica Harrison-Hall,
           in underglaze blue with a six-character mark within double   Ming Ceramics in the British Museum, London, 2001, pl. 8:23;
           circles, Japanese wood box                one in the Shanghai Museum, Shanghai, illustrated in Lu
           (2)                                       Minghua, Shanghai Bowuguan cangpin yanjiu daxi/Studies of
           25.2 cm, 9⅞ in                            the Shanghai Museum Collections : A Series of Monographs.
                                                     Mingdai guanyao ciqi [Ming imperial porcelain], Shanghai,
           The gardenia (zhizi) is a ß ower very rarely depicted on Chinese
                                                     2007, pl. 1-41; and a fourth example from the Meiyintang
           ceramics and known almost exclusively from the present
                                                     Collection, illustrated in Regina Krahl, Chinese Ceramics from
           design. It is not immediately associated with any auspicious   the Meiyintang Collection, London, 1994-2010, vol. 2, pl. 683,
           meaning, but the highly fragrant ß owers were popular with
                                                                         th
                                                     sold in our Hong Kong rooms, 9  October 2012, lot 43.
           ladies to wear in the hair, and were used for ß avouring tea and
           for preparing cosmetics, and the small fruits of the plant were   ಴ £ 50,000-70,000
           coveted for dyeing – producing a Þ ne yellow or orange colour –   HK$ 555,000-775,000   US$ 70,500-98,500
           as well as for their medicinal beneÞ ts.

                                                     ׼͍ᅃ   䔔ήڡڀૡɿڀ७ᆵ
            The blue-and-yellow colour scheme was developed in the
           Xuande period (1426-35), when the Þ rst dishes of this design         ɽ׼͍ᅃϋႡ‘ಛ
           were produced and was taken up again in the Chenghua
           period (1465-87). In both periods, the base of the dishes was
           generally still unglazed and the mark inscribed in a horizontal
           cartouche below the rim. In the Hongzhi and Zhengde reigns
           the design experienced its peak, and after the Jiajing reign
           (1522-66), when rare examples were still produced, was totally
           abandoned.
































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