A blue and white 'lotus bouquet' dish, Ming dynasty, Yongle period | 明永樂 青花一把蓮紋盤

Sotheby's Hong Kong, 8th April 2014, lot 3003.

香港蘇富比2014年4月8日，編號3003

The lotus bouquet motif, with its unexpected combination of lotus flowers, leaves and water weeds, tied with a ribbon and evoking strikingly coloured lotus ponds in full bloom during the summer, became very popular in the Yongle period. Dishes of this small size, typically more finely painted than the larger version, are, however, comparatively rare. Of thirty-four lotus-bouquet dishes recorded from the Ardabil Shrine in Iran, only three are of this small size; see John Alexander Pope, Chinese Porcelains from the Ardebil Shrine, Washington, D.C., 1956, pls. 30 and 31, nos. 29.16, 17, and 32. A closely related dish from the Meiyintang collection, illustrated in Regina Krahl, Chinese Ceramics from the Meiyintang Collection, London, 1994, vol. 2, pl. 665, was sold in these rooms 4th April 2012, lot 37; and another from the Greenwald collection, was sold at Christie's Hong Kong, 1st December 2010, lot 2803.

This design was revived again by the imperial kilns during the Yongzheng and Qianlong periods of the Qing Dynasty; compare three revival dishes in the Palace Museum, Beijing, illustrated in Geng Baochang, ed., Gugong bowuyuan cang Ming chu qinghua ci [Early Ming blue-and-white porcelain in the Palace Museum], vol. 2, Beijing, 2002, pls. 195, 199, and 203. 

一束蓮紋，永樂盛行，其構圖率真新穎，所綸蓮花、蓮葉、茨菰、水藻，以錦帶綁束，使人浮想仲夏接天蓮葉，青荷滿池的蓮塘小景。此類小盤，繪製精卓，較之大盤造型，相對罕見。據錄，伊朗阿德比爾寺所藏三十四件把蓮紋盤中，僅三件屬此類小型例，其中兩件作波浪狀口沿，剩餘一件或如本品樣式；參考John Alexander Pope，《 Chinese Porcelains from the Ardebil Shrine 》，華盛頓，1956年，圖版30及31，編號29.16、17、32。亦可比較一件玫茵堂舊藏相若盤例，收錄於康蕊君，《玫茵堂中國陶瓷》，倫敦，1994年，卷2，圖版665，2012年4月4日成交於香港蘇富比，編號37；再比一例原属 Greenwald 典藏，售於香港佳士得2010年

12月1日，編號2803。

此紋樣於清雍正、乾隆時期復現，比較三件盤例，藏於北京故宮博物院，載於耿寶昌編，《故宮博物院藏明初青花瓷》，北京，2002年，下冊，圖版195、199及 203。