Page 16 - 2019 October Two Ming Masterpieces Hong Kong Imperial Art Sotheby's

fig. 1
Blue and white ‘pomegranate’ dish, mark and period of Xuande, Qing court collection
Courtesy of the National Palace Museum, Taipei

This design itself continued to be produced for over a
century. The identification of the blossoms and fruits,
which is difficult from the silhouettes alone, becomes clear
when looking at the blue-on-white version of this design.
A blue-on-white (fig. 1) and a brown-on-white dish of this
pattern, both also inscribed with the Xuande reign mark, are
in the National Palace Museum, Taipei, and were included
in the Museum’s 1998 exhibition catalogue (op.cit., cat.
nos 197 and 199); a blue-against-yellow Xuande version is
in the Sir Percival David collection in the British Museum
(Regina Krahl and Jessica Harrison-Hall, Chinese Ceramics.
Highlights of the Sir Percival David Collection, London, 2009,
pl. 35). This blue-and-yellow version eventually became
the most popular and continued to be produced from the
Chenghua (1465-1487) to the Jiajing (1522-1566) periods.
A small number of dishes with other fruit and flower designs
in white reserved on blue were also produced in the Xuande
period, some larger and some smaller. The larger ones have
the mark reserved in a cartouche below the rim, like the
present piece, and the bases unglazed, since they probably
had to be supported during firing, to prevent sagging; see
for example, a dish with a central peony spray in the Palace
Museum, Beijing (Mingdai Xuande yuyao ciqi/Imperial
Porcelains from the Reign of Xuande in the Ming Dynasty,
Beijing, 2015, pl. 89); and one with a lily spray excavated
from the kiln site and included in the Chang Foundation
exhibition 1998 (op.cit., cat. no. 82-3). Dishes smaller than
the present piece have a glazed base, where the reign mark
is inscribed within a double circle; a dish of this type, with
a gardenia spray in the centre is in the National Palace
Museum, Taipei, and was included in the Museum’s 1998
exhibition (op.cit., cat. no. 193).