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Lot Essay
Covered in a thick unctuous glaze fired to a waxy finish, this bowl is masterfully potted with smooth rounded sides, gracefully rising from a tapered foot to a slightly flared rim, superbly painted in characteristic soft tone of cobalt-blue in outlines infilled with wash. The exterior is painted with a gently undulating meander of flowers with the blossoms in full bloom with tender flaring petals, all between double line bands at the rim and foot. The interior is painted with a central medallion enclosing a single flower head within a double circle, beneath a double-line band at the rim.
This model exemplifies the deft ability of Yongzheng potters to adapt and modify Ming design in a distinctly contemporary manner. The inspiration can be found in Chenghua mark and period pieces : there are four bowls preserved in the National Palace Museum, Taipei, recorded in the museum's porcelain catalogue Gugong ciqi lu, part II: Ming, vol.1, Taipei, 1962, p.214, three of which have been published with illustrations, two in the Catalogue of the Special Exhibition of Ch'eng-hua Porcelain Ware, 1465 – 1487, Taipei, 2003, cat.nos.33 and 34; the third in the exhibition catalogue Ming Chenghua ciqi tezhan [Special exhibition of Ming Chenghua porcelain], Taipei, 1976, no. 80.
Two similar Chenghua bowls are also in the British Museum, London, one, from the collection of Sir Percival David, was included in the exhibition Flawless Porcelains: Imperial Ceramics from the Reign of the Chenghua Emperor, Percival David Foundation, London, 1995, catalogue, no.1; the other from the collection of Mrs. Winnifred Roberts, given in memory of A.D. Brankston, is published in Jessica Harrison-Hall, Catalogue of Late Yuan and Ming Ceramics in the British Museum, London, 2001, no. 6:4.
See a pair of closely-related examples sold at Sotheby’s London, 7 June 2000, lot 125.
This model exemplifies the deft ability of Yongzheng potters to adapt and modify Ming design in a distinctly contemporary manner. The inspiration can be found in Chenghua mark and period pieces : there are four bowls preserved in the National Palace Museum, Taipei, recorded in the museum's porcelain catalogue Gugong ciqi lu, part II: Ming, vol.1, Taipei, 1962, p.214, three of which have been published with illustrations, two in the Catalogue of the Special Exhibition of Ch'eng-hua Porcelain Ware, 1465 – 1487, Taipei, 2003, cat.nos.33 and 34; the third in the exhibition catalogue Ming Chenghua ciqi tezhan [Special exhibition of Ming Chenghua porcelain], Taipei, 1976, no. 80.
Two similar Chenghua bowls are also in the British Museum, London, one, from the collection of Sir Percival David, was included in the exhibition Flawless Porcelains: Imperial Ceramics from the Reign of the Chenghua Emperor, Percival David Foundation, London, 1995, catalogue, no.1; the other from the collection of Mrs. Winnifred Roberts, given in memory of A.D. Brankston, is published in Jessica Harrison-Hall, Catalogue of Late Yuan and Ming Ceramics in the British Museum, London, 2001, no. 6:4.
See a pair of closely-related examples sold at Sotheby’s London, 7 June 2000, lot 125.