AN EXTREMELY RARE BLUE AND WHITE 'FRUIT' BOWL MING DYNASTY, YONGLE PERIOD

the deep rounded sides rising from a short foot, vividly painted on the exterior with detached fruiting branches of peach, crabapple, pomegranate and longan, above a band of overlapping petals encircling the foot, the interior decorated with a roundel enclosing a chrysanthemum spray, the cobalt of an attractive blue tone with pronounced characteristic 'heaping and piling' effect

Sotheby's London, 12th December 1978, lot 382.
Sotheby's Hong Kong, 13th November 1990, lot 127.
Sotheby's Hong Kong, 26th October 1993, lot 48.

Liu Liang-yu, A Survey of Chinese Ceramics, vol. 4: Ming Official Wares, Taipei, 1991, p. 64 left.

The surface of the glaze is somewhat degraded and it has been professionally cleaned. There are no structural issues with the piece.
"In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective, qualified opinion. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

This bowl is a classic example of blue-and-white porcelain from the early Ming dynasty. It features a lush fruit pattern, one of the most popular motifs of early Ming (1368-1644) blue and white which appears equally on other shapes of the period. Similar bowls, however, are very rare. In the Palace Museum, Beijing, is a bowl from the Qing court collection of nearly identical form, size and decoration (fig. 1), illustrated in The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum. Blue and White Porcelain with Underglazed Red (I), Shanghai, 2000, pl. 69, and probably the same bowl again in Geng Baochang, ed., Gugong Bowuyuan cang Ming chu qinghua ci [Early Ming blue-and-white porcelain in the Palace Museum], Beijing, 2002, vol. 1, cat. no. 76.

Two blue and white bowls of this pattern from the Yongle period (1403-24) are recorded in John Alexander Pope, Chinese Porcelain from the Ardebil Shrine, Washington, 1956, together with a white bowl incised with same branches of fruit and of the same form. He illustrates the carved white bowl pl. 113, no. 29.716, and one of the blue and white bowls pl. 49, no. 29.340; the second blue and white bowl, no. 29.339, is illustrated in Mehdi Bahrami, "Chinese Porcelains from Ardabil in the Teheran Museum", Transactions of the Oriental Ceramic Society, vol. 25, 1949-1950, pl. 1d; and different views of both bowls are illustrated in Takatoshi Misugi, Chinese Porcelain Collections in the Near East, Topkapi and Ardebil, vol. 3, The Ardebil Shrine Collections, Hong Kong, 1981, no. A 62. Compare also a larger bowl of this form of the Yongle period, painted with more widely spaced branches of fruit and with additional decoration on the interior, in Lu Minghua, Studies of the Shanghai Museum Collections: Ming Imperial Porcelain, Shanghai, 2007, pl. 1-9, also illustrated in Wang Qingzheng, Underglaze Blue and Red: Elegant Decoration on Porcelain of Yuan, Ming and Qing, Hong Kong, 1993, pl. 47.

Related examples include Yongle period blue and white bowls of the same form, with similar fruit sprays on the interior and floral scrolls on the exterior, published in The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum, op.cit., pls. 62 and 63. Compare also Xuande mark and period (1426-35) bowls of different forms, but with similar fruit sprays on the exterior, ibid., pls. 144 and 151.