Page 30 - March 17, 2020 Impotant Chinese Art, Sotheby's, New York

Fruit and flower sprays symbolizing prosperity were popular
designs of the early Ming dynasty (1368-1644). Bowls of
this lobed form appear to be specific to the Xuande reign
(1426-1435) and became part of the classic repertoire of the
official kilns. The shape is derived from conical bowls with
six delicate rim lobes glazed in monochrome white, which
had been produced at Jingdezhen during the Song dynasty
(960-1279). Tailored to the imperial taste, products of the
Xuande workshops were exquisitely finished and inscribed
with the imperial reign mark. Bowls of this design continued
to be admired throughout the Ming and Qing dynasties, as
evidenced by later copies.
Closely related examples are well represented in museum
collections around the world, for instance, two bowls
preserved in the National Palace Museum, Taipei, included
in the Museum’s exhibitions Ming Xuande ciqi tezhan
mulu/Catalogue of a Special Exhibition of Hsuan-te Period
Porcelain, Taipei, 1980, cat. no. 36, and Mingdai Xuande
guanyao jinghua tezhan tulu/Catalogue of the Special
Exhibition of Selected Hsüan-te Imperial Porcelains of the
Ming Dynasty, Taipei, 1998, cat. no. 62; and one from the
Qing Court Collection, now in the Palace Museum, Beijing,
illustrated in Geng Baochang, ed., Gugong Bowuyuan cang
Ming chu qinghua ci/Early Ming blue-and-white porcelain in
the Palace Museum, vol. 2, Beijing, 2002, pl. 146, where the
author notes that this design was frequently copied in the
Kangxi (1662-1722) and Yongzheng (1723-1735) periods, and
where a Xuande-marked copy attributed to the Kangxi reign
is illustrated, pl. 179.
Compare also a bowl in the Asian Art Museum, San
Francisco, (accession no. B60P2101) is illustrated in He
Li, Chinese Ceramics, A New Comprehensive Survey, New
York, 1996, fig. 403; and a pair in the National Museum of
Asian Art, Washington, D.C., (accession nos F1952.16a-c
and F1952.17a-b), illustrated in Thomas Lawton and Thomas
W. Lentz, Beyond the Legacy: Anniversary Acquisitions for
the Freer Gallery of Art and the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery,
Washington, D.C., 1998, vol. 1, p. 253, fig. 2.
Bowls of this type in private collections include one sold
in our London rooms, 24th March 1964, lot 98, now in the
collection of Asia Society, New York, and illustrated in Denise
Patry Leidy, Treasures of Asian Art: The Asia Society’s Mr.
and Mrs. John D. Rockefeller 3rd Collection, New York, 1994,
pl. 176; one formerly in the collections of President Herbert
Hoover, and Ira and Nancy Koger, sold in our these rooms,
27th November 1990, lot 6; and another one illustrated
in Regina Krahl, Chinese Ceramics from the Meiyintang
Collection, vol. 2, London, 1994-2010, no. 671, formerly in the
collections of K.L. Dawes, John F. Woodthorpe and Frederick
M. Mayer, and sold in our Hong Kong rooms, 5th October
2011, lot 12; and most recently a bowl from an important
American collection sold in these rooms, 15th March 2017,
lot 7.

56 SOTHEBY’S COMPLETE CATALOGUING AVAILABLE AT SOTHEBYS.COM/N10644 57