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AN EXCEPTIONAL EARLY MING BLUE AND WHITE 'LOTUS BOUQUET' DISH -

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AN EXCEPTIONAL EARLY MING BLUE AND WHITE 'LOTUS BOUQUET' DISH
以中文顯示
Estimate
(Set Currency)
    HK$3,500,000 - HK$4,000,000
  • ($453,645 - $518,452)

Sale Information

Sale 2711
the imperial saleimportant chinese ceramics and works of art
27 May 2009
Convention Hall Buy Catalog




Lot Description

AN EXCEPTIONAL EARLY MING BLUE AND WHITE 'LOTUS BOUQUET' DISH
YONGLE PERIOD (1403-1424)

Painted in vivid tones of sapphire blue on the interior with a bouquet of lotus flowers, seed pod and leaves, and other aquatic plants tied together with a fluttering ribbon, encircled by three concentric rings and a composite floral scroll around the cavetto below a wave band, the exterior with a further floral scroll between classic scrolls at the rim and a keyfret band above the foot, the cobalt with extensive 'heaping and piling', the base unglazed
16 in. (40.6 cm.) diam., box


明永樂 青花一把蓮大盤

此盤源自胡惠春家族收藏，1993年11月30日於紐約蘇富比胡惠春家族收藏專拍中拍賣，拍品第237號。

「一把蓮」即把蓮紋, 承元朝之風盛行於明永樂、宣德景德鎮御窯廠燒造的青花瓷上。 盤心蓮之花、葉、實的姿態秀美清雅，更將共生的香蒲、慈姑、紅蓼穿插其間，寓科舉連中或連生貴子之意。

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Provenance

The J.M. Hu Family Collection, sold at Sotheby's New York, 30 November, 1993, lot 237

Lot Notes

The design on this dish is typically described as 'lotus bouquet' with the majority of the flowers, pod and leaves belonging to the auspicious lotus plant. However, the bouquet also includes additional auspicous plants, such as the arrow-shaped sagittaria sagittifolia, a symbol both of generosity and of food in time of shortage, and a stalk of millet, symbolising an abundance of grain. It is interesting to note that the present dish is the largest of its type.
Dishes with this 'lotus bouquet' design belong to an important group of early Ming blue and white wares together with 'grape' dishes, 'melon' dishes and 'dragon' dishes. See J.A. Pope, Chinese Porcelains from the Ardebil Shrine, Washington, D.C., 1956, p. 92, where he discusses the thirty-four 'bouquet' dishes of varying size and decorated with different borders in the Ardebil collection, showing the wide range of intensity of cobalt within the dishes and the diversity of decoration, albeit based on a master pattern. Some of these variations can be seen, ibid., pls. 30 and 31.

A slightly smaller dish of the same design, also from the J. M. Hu collection was sold at Christie's Hong Kong, 27 November 2007, lot 1735; another smaller dish of this shape and design in the Shanghai Museum is illustrated by Wang Qingzheng, Underglaze Blue and Red, Hong Kong, 1993, no. 135. A dish of approximately the same size as the present example in the National Palace Museum is illustrated in Catalogue of a Special Exhibition of Early Ming Porcelain, Taipei, 1982, no. 39. Compare also with a smaller (38.7 cm.) dish sold at Christie's New York, 19 March 2009, lot 711.

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