Page 42 - Christie's, Important Chinese Works of Art December 2, 2015 HK

A Very Rare Xuande
Cobalt Blue Dish
with Reserved Floral
Decoration
Rosemary Scott
International Academic Director Asian Art
This impressive dish not only has a rare type of decoration, it
also is unusually large, and from one of the most highly esteemed
periods for imperial blue and white porcelain - the reign of the
Ming dynasty Xuande Emperor (1426-35). The bold decoration
of flowering and fruiting sprays on this dish combines anhua
decoration under the glaze with the reserving of the sprays in
white against a blue ground. The reserved decoration stands out
in white against a deep cobalt blue glaze, rather than underglaze
blue painting. The Xuande cobalt blue glaze is one of the finest
blue glazes produced in China, admired for its jewel-like colour
and rich depth.
The technique of reserved decoration was used on Jingdezhen
porcelain in the Yuan dynasty. Large Yuan dynasty blue and
white dishes sometimes included reserved floral scrolls against a
blue ground in the decoration of their cavettos. This Yuan blue
ground was sometimes painted as a solid colour under the glaze,
accompanied by painted leaf veins and flower petals, as on the large
dish in the collection of theVictoria and Albert Museum, London,
which has decoration using a similar technique in its central
medallion (illustrated in Splendors in Smalt - Art of Yuan Blue-and-
white Porcelain, Shanghai, 2012, pp. 110-1, no. 26). Sometimes large
Yuan dishes have moulded peony scrolls in the cavetto, which are
reserved in white against a ground that has been painted with
underglaze blue striations, as on a large dish from the collection of
the National Museum of Iran (illustrated in Splendors in Smalt - Art
of Yuan Blue-and-white Porcelain, op. cit., pp. 138-9, no. 39). A rare
group of Yuan dynasty dishes, and a small number of other forms,
are decorated in a technique closer to that seen on the current
dish. On these the white design - usually a dragon and flaming
pearl - is displayed against a cobalt blue ground, as is apparent on
the dish in the collection of Sir Percival David (illustrated by R.
Scott in “Elegant Form and Harmonious Decoration” - Four Dynasties
of Jingdezhen Porcelain, London, 1992, p. 24, no. 9). In the case of
40
fig. 1 Collection of the Jingdezhen Ceramic Archaeological
Research Institute
this Yuan dish, the white dragon has been cut out of thin clay,
which has been laid on top of the blue and then given a colourless
glaze. On the David dish, the blue can be seen beneath the thin
clay of the dragon’s body.
Excavations at the Ming Yongle strata at the imperial kilns at
Jingdezhen have unearthed a very small number of vessels with
white designs reserved against a monochrome copper red glaze
background. One of these is a small ewer excavated from the
late Yongle stratum, discussed in Imperial Porcelain of the Yongle and
Xuande Periods Excavated from the Site of the Ming Imperial Factory
at Jingdezhen, Hong Kong, 1989, pp. 152-3, no. 35 (although
the authors of Imperial Hongwu and Yongle Porcelain excavated at
Jingdezhen, Taipei, 1996, pp. 278-9, no. 108, describe the same
vessel as having underglaze red). The Ming Xuande reign
saw increased imperial interest and patronage of the kilns at
Jingdezhen, which resulted in increased production and increased
experimentation with decorative techniques. Dishes with bold
floral and fruiting sprays of the type seen on the current dish and
related dishes were the subject of much of the experimentation
in regard to colour contrasts. Thus similar designs in a variety
of colour combinations have been excavated from the Xuande
strata at the imperial kilns, including: blue on white, white against
blue, blue against yellow, blue against turquoise, and brown against
white (fig. 1) (see Xuande Imperial Porcelain excavated at Jingdezhen,
Taipei, 1998, pp. 83-9).
The Xuande dishes with bold flowering and fruiting sprays were
decorated in three distinct, but related, designs. One of the designs
had in the centre of the interior a spray of flowering pomegranate,
and four fruiting sprays of peach, lychee, loquat and persimmon in
the cavetto. While on the exterior sides were four sprays of lotus
(see J. Harrison-Hall, Ming Ceramics in the British Museum, London,
2001, p. 140, no. 4:41). A second version had a spray of blossoming