Page 132 - Sothebys Important Chinese Art London May 2018
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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 ɽ͍ᅃϋႡಛ
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.
130 SOTHEBY’S