A fine and rare blue and white hexalobed bowl mark and period of Xuande

of conical form with straight flared sides, the rim indented to form six subtle lobes, the interior painted in dark tones of underglaze-blue with a central medallion containing a fruiting and flowering peach spray within a triple circle, surrounded by six floral sprays of lotus, camellia, chrysanthemum and hollyhock, below a border of smaller detached floral sprays within double lines at the rim, the exterior painted with fruiting branches of lychee, grape, pomegranate, loquat, cherry and peach above smaller floral-sprays, the short footrim with a band of classic scroll, six-character mark to base within a double circle

From a Japanese Pharmaceutical Company

Bowls of this elegant shape and decoration are classic examples of Xuande porcelain produced in the imperal kilns, and the present piece is distinctive for its intense underglaze-blue decoration created in pure Chinese taste.

For similar examples see a bowl in the Palace Museum, Beijing, illustrated in Mingchu qinghua ci, vol.2, Beijing, 2002, pl. 146; in the Shanghai Museum illustrated in Shanghai Bowuguan, Beijing, 1985, pl. 105; in the Capital Museum, Beijing, included in Shoudu Bowuguan zang ci xuan, Beijing, 1991, pl. 97; in the Jingdezhen Ceramic Museum published in Keitokuchin jiki, Kyoto, 1982, pl. 38 bottom; and in the National Palace Museum, Taipei, included in Minji meihin zuroku, vol. 1, Tokyo, 1977, pl. 65.

Similar bowls can also be found in Western collections, for example, see one illustrated in Regina Krahl, Chinese Ceramics from the Meiyintang Collection, vol. II, London, 1994, pl. 671, reputedly from the Summer Palace, Beijing, later in the collections of K.L. Dawes, John F. Woodthorpe and Frederick M. Mayer, and sold in our London rooms, 6th April 1954, lot 24. A bowl of this decoration, from the collection of Mr. and Mrs. R.H.R. Palmer and included in the Min Chiu Society Thirtieth Anniversary Exhibition Selected Treasures of Chinese Art, Hong Kong, 1990, cat.no. 133, was sold at Christie's Hong Kong, 17th January 1989, lot 567, and again, 3rd November 1996, lot 546. 

The design was also also popular in the later periods, compare three bowls from the collections of President Herbert Hoover, Mr. and Mrs. Allan Hoover and Ira and Nancy Koger, sold in our New York rooms, 27th November 1990, lot 6, of Xuande mark and period, lot 9, of Wanli mark and period, and lot 8, a pair of bowls bearing the Xuande mark but of 18th century date.