Ming blue and white porcelains, Chenghua, Yongle & Xuande sold @ Christie's Hong Kong

An extremely rare Ming blue and white 'birds' stembowl. Chenghua period (1465-1487) Image 2009 Christie's Ltd

Finely painted on the exterior with four pairs of birds perched and flying among hibiscus, peach, peony and loquat sprays, above four fruiting sprays on the splayed stem foot, the interior well with a crane standing in front of a large lotus leaf, observing a smaller bird perched on the stem of a lotus pod, all within double circles, repeated under the mouth rim - 6 3/8 in. (16.2 cm.) diam., box. Price Realized HK$9,020,000($1,169,417)

明成化 青花花鳥紋高足盌

盌敞口，弧壁，高足中空外撇。通體青花紋飾，盌心雙圈內繪荷塘白鷺圖；外壁繪折枝木槿花、桃花、牡丹花和枇杷，一雙綬鳥或憩身後飛舞於枝頭；足牆飾折枝花果四株。

此器胎薄，釉面潔白溫潤，青花淡雅清秀，筆意柔和，為成化青花瓷中的典型之作。現存的完好成化瓷，大部分存於各大博物館，私人收藏的寥寥無幾。

Provenance: The Property of a Lady, previously sold at Christie's London, 5 June 1995, lot 121

Exhibited: Chinese Art from the Ching Wan Society Collections, Chang Foundation, Taipei, 1998, illustrated in the Catalogue, no. 26

Notes: This unusual stembowl seems to relate most closely amongst published comparables to the bowl in the Ardebil Shrine, decorated on the interior with two birds on a crab-apple bush, and on the exterior with three similar bird and bush-sprays, see J. A. Pope, Chinese Porcelains from the Ardebil Shrine, Freer Gallery of Art, Washington, pl.63. There is also a stembowl in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the gift of Mr and Mrs Stanley Herzman, 1990, formerly in the collection of F.B.C. Bravington; and a related stembowl decorated with aquatic plants in the Musée Guimet, Paris, illustrated by Lion-Goldschmidt, La Porcelaine Ming, Fribourg, 1978, pl.69.

The style of painting closely resembles that found on a small bowl dated to the late Chenghua period and excavated from the 'quality-control' spoilheaps at the Zhushan Imperial kiln site at Jingdezhen, exhibited in Hong Kong, A Legacy of Chenghua, 1993, Catalogue, no. C58; and see also the stembowl of similar proportions to the present lot, ibid., no. A8.

Compare with two other similar Chenghua period stembowls, the first painted with 'The Three Friends', sold at Christie's London, 10 June 1991, lot 121; and the other with kui dragons, sold at Christie's Hong Kong, 27 May 2009, lot 1807.

A fine early Ming blue and white bowl, lianzi wan. Yongle period (1403-1424) Image 2009 Christie's Ltd

The deep sides rising from a point at the centre of the base, the exterior finely painted in rich blue tones with a band of elongated lotus petals below a keyfret border at the rim, the interior with a central spray of fruiting loquat within double circles, below a leafy scroll alternating with camellias and chrysanthemum flowerheads, and a band of breaking waves at the rim, the cobalt-blue with attractive 'heaping and piling' - 8 3/8 in. (21.4 cm.) diam., box. Price Realized HK$4,220,000 ($547,111)

明永樂 青花裏纏枝花卉外蓮瓣紋蓮子盌

Provenance: Major L.F. Hay, sold at Sotheby's London, 16 June 1939, lot 93
Mr. and Mrs. R.H.R. Palmer, no. 525, sold at Christie's Hong Kong, 17 January 1989, lot 565
The Jingguantang Collection, sold at Christie's Hong Kong, 5 November 1997, lot 891

Exhibited: Somerville College, Oxford, 1944, no. 105
Chang Foundation, Taipei, Chinese Art from the Ching Wan Society Collections, 1998, illustrated in the Catalogue, no. 16
David Lin & Co., Yuan and Ming Blue and White Porcelain, Taipei, 2000, pl. 7

Notes: A closely related example in the Shanghai Museum is illustrated in Underglaze Blue and Red, 1987, col. pl. 44. Cf. another in the Freer Gallery, illustrated in Oriental Ceramics, 1981, vol. 9, pl. 93. The Percival David Foundation also has a comparable bowl, Catalogue, Section 3, no. B637; Feng Xianming illustrates a similar bowl in the Beijing Palace Museum, 'Yongle and Xuande Blue-and-White Porcelain in the Palace Museum', Orientations, November 1987, p. 62, fig. 13, which compares interestingly with another lianzi bowl that was clearly exported at an early date to the Middle East, illustrated by John A. Pope, Chinese Porcelains from the Ardebil Shrine, 1956, pl. 47, 29.326. Compare also to the bowl from the collection of Mrs. Alfred Clark, illustrated by R. Krahl, Chinese Ceramics from the Meiyintang Collection, 1994, vol. 2, 1995, fig. 670.

A fine early Ming blue and white 'lotus bouquet' dish. Yongle period (1403-1424) Image 2009 Christie's Ltd

Painted to the centre of the interior with a bouquet of lotus flowers, leaves, a seed-pod, sagittaria and aquatic plants tied with a bowed ribbon, encircled by three concentric rings below a composite floral scroll of thirteen flowerheads including pairs of chrysanthemum, lotus, peony, rose, hibiscus, camellia, and a single pomegranate flower beneath classic scroll at the rim, the exterior with composite floral scroll of fourteen flowerheads comprising seven pairs of flowers between a keyfret border around the foot and a border of classic scroll below the lipped rim, the cobalt with extensive 'heaping and piling', the base unglazed - 13 1/2 in. ( 34.3 cm. ) diam., box. Price Realized HK$1,820,000 ($235,958)

明永樂 青花一把蓮盤

Provenance: Previously sold at Sotheby's Hong Kong, 1 May 2001, lot 506

Notes: The design on this dish is typically described as 'lotus bouquet' as the majority of the flowers, pods and leaves belong to the auspicious lotus plant. However, the bouquet also includes additional auspicious plants, such as the arrow-shaped sagittaria sagittifolia, a symbol both of generosity and of food in a time of shortage, and a stalk of millet, symbolising an abundance of grain.

A number of dishes of this design and size are published: one in the collection of the National Palace Museum, Taipei, is illustrated in Porcelain of the National Palace Museum: Blue-and-White Ware of the Ming Dynasty, Book II, Part 2, Hong Kong, 1963, pp. 146-7, pl. 59; an example in the Shanghai Museum is illustrated in Underglaze Blue and Red, no. 135; one was included in the Min Chiu Society exhibition, Joined Colors, Sackler Gallery, Washington D. C., 1993 and illustrated in the Catalogue, no. 7; and another is illustrated in The S. C. Ko Tianminlou Collection, Hong Kong Museum of Art, 1987, pl. 10. A dish of this pattern was excavated from the Yongle stratum of the site of the imperial kiln at Jingdezhen in 1994, and is illustrated in Imperial Hongwu and Yongle Porcelain Excavated at Jingdezhen, Chang Foundation, Taipei, 1996, no. 40.

Dishes of this pattern have also been sold at auction, including one from the T. Y. Chao Collection, sold at Sotheby's Hong Kong, 19 May 1987, lot 233; and another larger example from the J.M. Hu collection sold at Christie's Hong Kong, 20 May 2009, lot 1804 (40 cm. diam.).

A rare early Ming blue and white dish. Yongle period (1403-1424) Image 2009 Christie's Ltd

Painted in soft tones of deep cobalt blue punctuated by characteristic 'heaping and piling' with a slender interlacing vine bearing a central blossom and three subsidiary blossoms and buds including peony, camellia and mallow surrounded by their respective leaves, below a continuous band of composite floral scroll to the cavetto and a band of foliate vines encircling the rim, the exterior with a further frieze of eleven composite flowerheads, the base unglazed - 16 1/8 in. (41 cm.) diam. Price Realized HK$1,580,000 ($204,842)

明永樂 青花纏枝花卉紋折沿盤

Notes: It is extremely rare to find a Yongle dish with a rounded rim decorated with a continuous vine around the rim rather than cresting waves and very few examples have been published. A dish of the same size and pattern in the Ardebil Shrine Collection inscribed in Farsi with the Shah Abbas' mark is illustrated by T. Misugi, Chinese Porcelain Collections in the Near East, Vol. 3, The Ardebil Shrine Collection, Hong Kong, 1981, p. 121, no. A.37 alongside a dish of the same pattern with the more conventional cresting wave border, ibid., p. 120, no. A 36.

Three similar dishes of the same pattern with a vine border around the everted rim have been sold at auction; the first was sold at Sotheby's London, 16 November 1971, lot 89; the second at Christie's London, 5 June 1995, lot 119; and the third at Sotheby's New York, 6 December 1989, lot 160.

For further examples of dishes with the same pattern but with a cresting wave border compare a dish excavated at Dongmentou, Zhushan, in 1994, and exhibited at the Chang Foundation, Taipei, Imperial Hongwu and Yongle Porcelain Excavated at Jingdezhen, 1996, Catalogue no. 44. Other similar examples include one in the National Palace Museum, Taipei, published in the Illustrated Catalogue of Ming Dynasty Porcelain, 1977, pl. 37; one exhibited at the Hong Kong Museum of Art, Ming and Ch'ing Porcelain from the Collection of the T. Y. Chao Family Foundation, 1978, and illustrated in the Catalogue, no. 5; one illustrated by J. Ayers, The Baur Collection, Geneva, 1969, vol. II, no. A140; and another included in the Philadelphia Museum of Art Exhibition of Chinese Blue and White, 1994, illustrated in the Catalogue, no. 38.

An early Ming blue and white 'lotus' bowl. Xuande six-character mark within double-circles and of the period (1426-1435) Image 2009 Christie's Ltd

Finely potted with deep rounded sides rising to a slightly flared rim, painted in inky-blue tones to the interior with a central medallion containing a lotus borne on a leafy sprig, the well decorated with a composite floral meander issuing peony, chrysanthemum, gardenia, lotus and rose blossoms below a pencilled floral scroll at the rim, the exterior with a further arched scroll issuing five lotus flowers below a keyfret border at the rim and lotus petals radiating upward from the foot, the foot encircled with a classic scroll - 6 3/4 in. ( 17.2 cm. ) diam., Japanese wood box. Price Realized HK$1,220,000 ($158,169)

明宣德 青花纏枝蓮紋撇口盌 雙圈雙行六字楷體款

Notes: Bowls of this pattern with Xuande marks from both public and private collections have been published. Comparable examples include: one illustrated by M. Tregear, Guide to Chinese Ceramics in the Ashmolean Museum, 1966, pl. 30; one by R. L. Hobson in the Percival David Foundation Catalogue, pl. CXXXIV; and a bowl illustrated in Chinese Porcelain, The S.C. Ko Tianminlou Collection, 1987, pl. 22. Compare also the example in the John A. Pope collection included in the Exhibition of Ming Blue and White, Philadelphia Museum, 1949, Catalogue, no. 45; and one sold at Christie's Hong Kong, 27 May 2008, lot 1846.

Christie's. Important Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art. 1 December 2009. Hong Kong www.christies.com