A fine and rare early Ming blue and white fruit bowl. Xuande six-character mark in a line and of the period (1426-1435).

A fine and rare early Ming blue and white fruit bowl. Xuande six-character mark in a line and of the period (1426-1435). Photo: Christie's Images Ltd., 2010

The sturdily potted bowl with rounded sides resting on a tall ring foot, the exterior painted in deep purplish-blue tones with concentrated areas of 'heaping and piling' with a classic lotus scroll issuing eight lotus blooms in profile, each framed by an arched stem and curled leaves, above a lotus lappet band around the base, the rim and foot encircled by a border of detached scrolling clouds between double-line borders; 11 in. (27.9 cm.) diam., box. Estimate HK$3,000,000 - HK$5,000,000. Price Realized HK$3,380,000 ($437,035)

Provenance: An Asian private collection
Previously sold at:
Sotheby's Hong Kong, 14 November 1989, lot 19
Christie's Hong Kong, 3 November 1996, lot 710

Notes: Dice bowls with borders of scrolling clouds around the rim and foot are extremely rare and no other bowls of this specific pattern are recorded with such borders.

Compare to other published examples of similar lotus scroll pattern in public and private collections; two in the National Palace Museum, Taipei, one in the Illustrated Catalogue of Ming Dynasty Porcelain, pl. 60, the other in the Catalogue, Blue and White Ware of the Ming Dynasty, Book II, pt. II, pl. 46; one illustrated in Chinese Porcelain, The S.C. Ko Tianminlou Collection, pl. 25; one in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford illustrated in Sekai Toji Zenshu, Shogakukan Series, vol. 15, pl. 150; one in the Idemitsu Collection, illustrated in Chinese Ceramics in the Idemitsu Collection, Tokyo, 1987, no. 171 and another from the J.M. Hu Collection, sold at Sotheby's New York, 4 June 1985, lot 6.

Christie's. Important Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art, 1 December 2010, Hong Kong www.christies.com