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A FINE AND EXTREMELY RARE MING BLUE AND WHITE STEMBOWL
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A FINE AND EXTREMELY RARE MING BLUE AND WHITE STEMBOWL
Estimate
(Set Currency)
    HK$6,000,000 - HK$8,000,000
  • ($776,540 - $1,035,386)

Sale Information

Sale 2811
The Imperial Sale Important Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art
31 May 2010
Hong Kong Buy Catalog





Lot Description

A FINE AND EXTREMELY RARE MING BLUE AND WHITE STEMBOWL
CHENGHUA PERIOD (1465-1487)

With thinly potted rounded sides rising to a flaring mouth rim, resting on an elegantly splayed stem foot decorated with eight simple florettes within double-line borders, the exterior of the bowl finely painted in bright tones to depict an Indian lotus scroll above overlapping triangular plantain leaves, the interior medallion painted with a single peony spray within double circles, the glaze with a soft blue tinge
6 15/16 in. (17.7 cm.) high, box


明成化 青花纏枝寶相花紋高足盌

盌撇口，弧壁，高足中空。通體青花紋飾，盌心雙圈內繪折枝牡丹；外壁繪纏枝香蓮，亦名「寶相花」；近足處環飾朵梅。

此盌為佛供器，亦謂「馬上盃」或「靶 (盌) 」。其器形秀美，發色清晰明亮，紋飾佈局和諧舒展，為成化御窰之上品美器，尺寸特大非常少見。

此器為張宗憲之舊藏。著錄於1984出版A. du Boulay著《Christie's Pictorial History of Chinese Ceramics》圖版4；1985年7月15日於倫敦佳士得 拍賣，拍品89號；1993年於倫敦佳士得展出，展品目錄第13號。


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Pre-Lot Text

Property of a Distinguished Private Collector

Provenance

Previously sold at Christie's London, 15 July 1981, lot 89
The Robert Chang Collection, sold at Christie's Hong Kong, 1 November 2004, lot 829

Literature

A. du Boulay, Christie's Pictorial History of Chinese Ceramics, 1984, p. 120, pl. 4

Exhibited

Christie's London, An Exhibition of Important Chinese Ceramics from the Robert Chang Collection, 1993, Catalogue, p. 42, no. 13

Lot Notes

The design of scrolling lotus is well-known on 'palace bowls' of the Chenghua period, although as a decorative motif on a stembowl the present lot is unique. Compare the closely related painting style with two Chenghua-marked palace bowls, both included in the exhibition, A Legacy of Chenghua, Hong Kong, 1993, and illustrated in the Catalogue, p. 243, C77; and p. 245, C78. Both bowls are from the late Chenghua stratum, the first is decorated with a lotus scroll of large and small flowers growing from a single outlined stem, in a very similar style to the present stembowl; and the other bowl with lotus flowers joined to a stem depicted by double outlines.

Compare also the bowl with this design from the Alfred Clark Collection, illustrated by Messrs Spink & Son, Catalogue, 1974, no. 26; and the more stylised lotus flowers painted on a bowl from the Ardebil Shrine, illustrated by J. A. Pope, Chinese Porcelains from the Ardebil Shrine, pl. 64, no. 29.344.

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