Page 36 - 2019 October Two Ming Masterpieces Hong Kong Imperial Art Sotheby's

fig. 1
Blue and white ‘day lily’ palace bowl, mark and period of Chenghua
© The Trustees of the British Museum

blooms, but are otherwise quite different and belong to spring from below the stem, while the fourth rises above it.
completely different species. They are easily distinguished It makes this – like other ‘palace bowl’ designs – vibrate, as
by their growth, as lilies bear shorter leaves all along their if pervaded with some subtle motion.
stem, while day lilies have long, blade-like leaves sprouting Julian Thompson, who for years compiled and researched a
from the ground around the flowering stem. While the two catalogue raisonné of Chenghua imperial porcelains (which
are difficult to distinguish with certainty in this stylised unfortunately never appeared in print due to his untimely
painted form, the elongated leaves on the present design death), remarks about the irregularities of this bowl (The
might suggest that it depicts a day lily, and the related Alan Chuang Collection of Chinese Porcelain, Hong Kong,
design a lily. According to Terese Tse Bartholomew (Hidden 2009, p. 66): “In the design of the present bowl there are a
Meanings in Chinese Art, San Francisco, 2006, p. 67), the number of irregularities of detail in the composition of the
day lily (xuancao) is in China also called ‘plant that dispels scroll, … which might at first sight be attributed to the whim
grief’ (wangyoucao) or ‘boy-favouring herb’ (yi’nancao) and of the individual painter. On close examination, however,
is revered as an auspicious flower symbolising many male all three of the surviving bowls are found to have exactly
offspring and – in spite of the fact that its blooms last only the same irregularities … Thus the irregularities are an
one day – longevity.
intentional feature of the design …”
Chenghua palace bowls are quite unlike any earlier or later The two companion pieces that exist both came from
imperial designs, because the layout of the decoration the collection of Wu Lai-hsi and were sold in our London
usually deviates in some way from an orderly, predictable rooms, 26th May 1937, lots 45 and 46. The former, which
arrangement – a daring and unique concept for imperial is particularly close to the present piece, was frequently
works of art, where any individual touch was generally exhibited and illustrated, early on, for example, in A.D.
shunned and machine-like precision and perfection were Brankston, Early Ming Wares of Chingtechen, Beijing, 1938,
required. In the present pattern, one of the elongated leaves pls 25a and 26a, was then sold in our London rooms three
on the inside grows an unexpected spur, which interrupts more times, from the collection of George Eumorfopoulos,
the regular rhythm, and on the outside, three of these leaves