A RARE COPPER-RED 'FLORAL SCROLL' BOWL MING DYNASTY, HONGWU PERIOD

finely and solidly potted with deep rounded sides rising from a short straight foot to a flared mouth, painted on the interior with a central medallion enclosing a leafy peony spray and an attendant bud within a double-line border, the cavetto boldly painted with further peony, pomegranate, chrysanthemum and camellia flowers below key-fret border at the rim, the exterior painted with a leafy scroll of alternating lotus blooms between a key-fret border above and 'classic' scrolls around the foot, the red varying in shades from a pale maroon tone to a pale reddish-grey, the base glazed

Mayuyama & Co. Ltd.

Mayuyama: Seventy Years, vol. 1, Mayuyama & Co. Ltd., Tokyo, 1976, pl. 730.

The bowl is in good condition except for a tiny shallow glaze flake under the mouthrim on the exterior of 0.1 cm (diameter). The description in Mayuyama: Seventy Years is incorrectly numbered as cat. no. 729.
"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."

Vessels with underglaze copper-red design from the Hongwu period (1368-1398) are among the rarest examples of Ming dynasty (1368-1644) porcelain, and the present bowl is among the most representative Hongwu copper-red pieces. After the bold and powerful porcelain style of the Yuan dynasty (1279-1368), the early Ming period is characterised by more formalised and orderly shapes and designs. The present piece, with its sharp and precise form, flowers of the four seasons, even undulating scroll of stylised flowers and formal key-fret border, embodies both the well calibrated shapes and the meticulously designed patterns of the period. Also typical is the increased replacement of underglaze painting in blue, from imported cobalt pigment, which had become rare due to the emperor’s restrictions on foreign trade, with red from domestic copper pigment. According to Liu Xinyuan, porcelains with a red glaze or underglaze-red painting were produced systematically on a considerable scale in the Hongwu period, while previous production of these types had been diverse and experimental, see Imperial Hongwu and Yongle Porcelain Excavated at Jingdezhen, Chang Foundation, Taipei, 1996, p. 52. However, during the Hongwu period very few copper-red wares were successfully fired due to the difficulty in controlling the copper-red pigment. The potters’ difficulties of firing the copper successfully are impressively documented by several porcelains from this period, which were preserved in the imperial collections even though the copper pigment has resulted in uneven, spotty designs or even misfired to a nearly black tone, as seen, for example, on a large dish from the Qing court collection, in exhibition catalogue Wang Guangyao & Jiang Jianxin eds., Imperial Porcelains from the Reigns of Hongwu and Yongle in the Ming Dynasty: A Comparison of Porcelains from the Imperial Kiln Site at Jingdezhen and the Imperial Collection of the Palace Museum, Palace Museum, Beijing, 2015, cat. no. 17.  

The present bowl is also extremely rare and outstanding in its motif of detached flower sprays of chrysanthemum, peony, camellia and pomegranate on the cavetto, instead of the more usual continuous scroll of either chrysanthemum or peony. Very few similar examples seem to be recorded, although one was sold in these rooms, 24th November 1981, lot 132. Another closely similar bowl, but with a chrysanthemum spray in the centre, from the collection of Lord Trevelyan, is published in John Addis, ‘A Group of Underglaze Red’, Transactions of the Oriental Ceramic Society, vol. 31, 1957-59, pl. 1a.

Compare also a closely related bowl from the Hongwu period in the Palace Museum in Beijing, with continuous chrysanthemum scroll on the cavetto and key-fret borders encircling not only the foot rim but also the interior and exterior mouth rim, and a bowl of the same design but in underglaze blue, from the imperial kilnsite in Jingdezhen, in Wang Guangyao and Jiang Jianxin, op. cit., cat. nos 7-8. Three similar copper-red bowls were sold at Sotheby’s, one in our London rooms, 13th March 1973, lot 232, and twice in these rooms, 29th November 1977, lot 27, and 30th April 1991, lot 9A; another from the collections of J.F. Bloxham and Stephen Winkworth was sold twice in our London rooms, 26th April 1933, lot 363, and 2nd/3rd December 1974, lot 264, and exhibited on loan at the Victoria and Albert Museum prior to 1974; the third was sold in these rooms, 1st November 1999, lot 308, and is illustrated in Mikami Tsugio, ed., Sekai tōji zenshū/Ceramic Art of the World, vol. 13: Ryō, Kin, Gen/Liao, Chin and Yüan Dynasties, Tokyo, 1981, col. pl. 82. A fourth bowl, with a 'classic' scroll instead of a key-fret border on the rim outside, from the Sakamoto collection, was sold in these rooms, 8th October 2014, lot 3505.