A fine and extremly rare blue and white 'Foliate scroll' meiping. Ming Dynasty, Chenghua period.

A fine and extremly rare blue and white 'Foliate scroll' meiping. Ming Dynasty, Chenghua period.  photo couortesy Sotheby's

the round-shouldered elegantly tapering body rising from a recessed base to a narrow short ribbed neck with everted rolled rim, finely painted in rich heaped and piled cobalt-blue tones around the exterior with a broad undulating foliate scroll band, all between a stiff pendant plantain-leaf band draping the shoulders repeated as upright leaves skirting the foot, the neck with two simple scroll bands divided by a single line at the rib, the base unglazed; 26.5 cm., 10 1/2 in. - Estimate 20,000,000—30,000,000 HKD. Lot Sold 43,220,000 HKD

PROVENANCE: Collection of Robert C. Bruce (one of a pair, acquired in London prior to 1950).
Sotheby's London, 12th May 1953, lot 87 (sold together with its pair).
Collection of H.R.N. Norton.
Sotheby's London, 5th November 1963, lot 160.
Collection of J. T. Tai.
Hugh M. Moss Ltd. (1970s, reunited with its pair).

EXHIBITED: Ming Blue-and-White Porcelain, Oriental Ceramic Society, London, 1946, cat. no. 97 (together with its pair).

LITERATURE AND REFERENCES: Adrian M. Joseph, Ming Porcelains. Their Origins and Development, London, 1971, pl. 39 (shown left, together with its pair).

Sotheby's. Fine Chinese Ceramics & Works of Art. 08 Oct 10. Hong Kong www.sothebys.com