A fine blue and white lobed 'melon' jarlet, Mark and period of Yongzheng | 清雍正 青花瓜瓞綿綿瓜棱小罐 《大清雍正年製》款

This charming jarlet is a fine example of porcelain that has been inspired by celebrated early Ming designs but reinterpreted on a different form and miniature scale. The motif of clusters of melons on curling vines is taken from palace bowls of the Chenghua period (r. 1465-87). Chenghua designs are remarkable for their idiosyncratic painting style that differs from the creations of the imperial kilns in most other reigns by being slightly unpredictable and capricious. Like its predecessor, the present jarlet presents differently composed clusters of vines that each are so harmonious that they initially appear to follow the same pattern. The combination of washes of cobalt with delicate yet confident outlines also stems from its Chenghua predecessor.

A closely related jarlet from the Wang Xing Lou collection was included in the exhibition Imperial Perfection. The Palace Porcelain of Three Chinese Emperors, Minneapolis Institute of Art, Minneapolis, 2004, cat. no. 12; another was sold twice in these rooms, 20th May 1986, lot 55, and 8th October 2008, lot 2558; and a third was sold at Christie’s New York, 13th/14th September 2012, lot 1460.

For a Chenghua ‘melon palace bowl’ prototype, see one from the collection of Sir Percival David and now in the British Museum, London, illustrated in Regina Krahl and Jessica Harrison-Hall, Chinese Ceramics. Highlights from the Sir Percival David Collection, London, 2009, cat. no. 36; and another reconstructed from sherds recovered from the waste heaps of the Ming imperial kiln site at Jingdezhen, included in the exhibition A Legacy of Chenghua. Imperial Porcelain of the Chenghua Reign Excavated from Zhushan, Jingdezhen, Tsui Museum of Art, Hong Kong, 1993, cat. no. C 82.