A very fine Blue and white bowl Ming Dynasty, Xuande period

well potted with deep rounded sides resting on a straight foot rising to a flared rim, the exterior painted in classic dark cobalt-blue tones with a scrolling lotus meander, between a border of upright lappets at the base and a classic scroll at the rim, the interior with a central medallion containing a peony spray within a double line border, surrounded by six floral sprays of chrysanthemum, rose, convolvulus, peony, camellia and hibiscus, the rim encircled with a key-fret border, the base glazed white

Gulbenkian Museum, Durham, no. L 39. 
Christie's London, 9 November 2004, lot 130.

A Xuande bowl of this design in the National Palace Museum, Taipei, was included in the exhibition Mingdai chunian ciqi tezhan, National Palace Museum, Taipei, 1982, cat.no. 28, together with another bowl of this form and size, but with the motif on the foot and rim inter-changed, cat.no. 27. Compare also a bowl from the collection of Dr. Ip Yee, included in the exhibition An Anthology of Chinese Ceramics, Hong Kong Museum of Art, Hong Kong, 1980, cat.no. 76, and in the Hong Kong O.C.S. exhibition Chinese Blue and White Porcelain and Related Underglaze Red, City Museum and Art Gallery, Hong Kong, 1975, cat.no. 76, sold at Christie's 7th June 1971, lot 13, and again in these rooms, 19th November 1984, lot 174. See also a slightly smaller bowl of this form and design, from the Ardebil Shrine, now in the Iran Bastan Museum, Teheran, illustrated in T. Misugi, Chinese Porcelain Collections in the Near East. Topkapi and Ardebil, Vol. 3, Hong Kong, 1981, pl. A56.

A similar bowl was sold in these rooms, 30th April 1996, lot 328; and another from the Tattenhall collection, 12th December 1989, lot 287. For the inspiration of this bowl see a larger bowl of related design, with a classic scroll replacing the key-fret around the foot, included in the exhibition Imperial Porcelain of the Yongle and Xuande Periods Excavated from the Site of the Ming Imperial Factory at Jingdezhen, Hong Kong Museum of Art, Hong Kong, 1989, cat.no. 44, found in the late Yongle stratum.