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PROPERTY OF A GENTLEMAN 明永樂 / 宣德 銅胎掐絲琺瑯纏枝花卉紋盌
A RARE CLOISONNÉ ENAMEL ‘FLORAL’ BOWL, 來源
MING DYNASTY, YONGLE / XUANDE PERIOD
香港佳士得1999年11月2日，編號798
Diameter 5⅛ in., 13 cm 亞洲私人收藏
紐約蘇富比2018年3月21日，編號586
PROVENANCE

Christie’s Hong Kong, 2nd November 1999, lot 798.
Asian Private Collection.
Sotheby’s New York, 21st March 2018, lot 586.
This rare early Ming bowl is remarkable in its blending
of classical Chinese imagery and Himalayan metalwork.
Accentuated by a raised band that encircles the exterior
and frames elegant lotus scrolls, this charming vessel is
emblematic of the process of refinement and sinicization of
Buddhist-style imagery in the fifteenth century.
Tibetan-inspired cloisonné enamel vessels of this type were
created for use in Buddhist temples and thus decorated
with designs suitable for their ceremonial function and
surroundings. In this way, the dense composition of lotus
scrolls with spiky blooms that often filled the background
of Tibetan paintings has been adopted here by Chinese
craftsmen as the main decorative motif. Indeed, variations
of this scrolling lotus design were applied in the Xuande
period to a variety of ritual artefacts in porcelain, lacquer
and bronze. Compare a related cloisonné kundika, similarly
decorated with lotus scrolls interlaced with raised bands
of gilt bronze, from the collections of T. B. Kitson and Sir
Harry Garner, sold in our London rooms, 18th October
1960, lot 104, now preserved in the British Museum, London
(accession no. 1977,0718.1); and a blue and white bowl of
Xuande mark and period in the National Palace Museum,
Taipei, included in the Special Exhibition of Selected Hsuan-
te Imperial Porcelains of the Ming Dynasty, National Palace
Museum, Taipei, 1998, cat. no. 184.
A small number of very closely related bowls of this type
are known. Compare two examples from the Pierre Uldry
Collection included in the exhibition Chinesisches Cloisonné
die Sammlung Pierre Uldry, Museum Reitberg, Zurich, 1985,
cat. nos 20 and 21, the former with lotuses rendered in block
colors; another sold in our London rooms, 18th June 1985,
lot 242; and a fourth example sold at Christie’s London, 1st
December 1997, lot 277. Compare also a bowl of this type,
but the raised band decorated with red scrolling leaves on a
turquoise ground, sold in our London rooms, 13th December
1988, lot 43.

$ 100,000-150,000

444 SOTHEBY’S COMPLETE CATALOGUING AVAILABLE AT SOTHEBYS.COM/N11744