AN EXTREMELY RARE BLUE AND WHITE 'CONCH' BUDDHIST EMBLEM MING DYNASTY, EARLY 15TH CENTURY

the hollow emblem moulded as a large conch rising upwards out of turbulent splashing waves, resting on ornamental jagged rockwork, painted overall in soft tones of underglaze-blue with characteristic 'heaping and piling', the base unglazed

Buddhist altar emblems made of porcelain are well known from the Qing dynasty, but are extremely rare from any earlier period. No comparable example appears to be recorded although a blue and white 'double fish' emblem, with the pair of intertwined fish soaring upwards out of turbulent waves and supported on a double lotus pedestal, attributed to the Xuande period, was offered in these rooms, 2nd May 2005, lot 642. The similarities in the painting style of the two emblems, both painted in the deep purplish tones of underglaze-blue suggest that they possibly belong to the same set of eight Buddhist altar emblems.  

The technique of modelling pierced rockwork in porcelain is known to have been practiced at the Jingdezhen kilns during the Yuan dynasty. See for example a pierced mountain brushrest of the Yuan period with a plain qingbai glaze, illustrated in Zhongguo wenwu jinghua daquan. Taoci juan, Hong Kong, 1993, p. 353, no. 619.

For an example of a porcelain conch-shaped vessel see a water dropper in the form of a spiral shell resting on a flattened dish painted in underglaze-blue with irregular veins running from the centre in simulation of a lotus leaf, from the Muwen Tang collection and illustrated in Song Ceramics from the Kwan Collection, Hong Kong, 1994, cat.no. 126, sold in our London rooms, 12th November 2003, lot 70.

Blue and white potted replications of animals were also made in various forms. Compare for instance a mandarin duck-shaped water dropper in the National Palace Museum, Taipei, included in the museum's Special Exhibition of Selected Hsuan-te Imperial Porcelains of the Ming Dynasty, Taipei, 1998, cat.no. 4.

Sets of eight Buddhist altar emblems including the 'conch' emblem are known in various different materials from the Qing dynasty; see for example a porcelain and a bronze set in situ in the Imperial Place published in the Cultural Relics of Tibetan Buddhism Collected in the Qing Palace, Hong Kong, 1992, pls. 99-1 and 103.

The Eight Auspicious Symbols of Buddhism (Ba jixiang) originated in India and were introduced into China through the influence of Tibetan Buddhism in the Yuan dynasty. By the Ming dynasty they became standard decoration for official porcelains made for the Imperial Palace. The eight symbols consist of the wheel, conch, canopy, parasol, lotus blossom, vase, twin fish and endless knot. The conch (luo) symbolizes the sound of the Buddha's teachings that reaches far.