AN IMPORTANT AND EXTREMELY RARE DOUCAI 'NARCISSUS' BOWL

Details

AN IMPORTANT AND EXTREMELY RARE DOUCAI 'NARCISSUS' BOWL
ZHENGDE FOUR-CHARACTER MARK IN A LINE BELOW THE RIM AND OF THE PERIOD

The circular jardiniere is finely potted with low cylindrical sides above an angled waist and slightly concave base supported on three stepped feet, the exterior with a continuous meander of Morning Glory scrolls, each flower-head decorated in underglaze-blue borne on a double-lined vine and detailed with green, yellow and black enamels, the angled waist above the ruyi foot with an enamelled band of classic scroll, the glaze has a soft blue tinge except for a circle on the base covered in a thin transparent glaze revealing the pale body (short hairline)
9 5/8 in. (24.5 cm.), box

Provenance

Given by John Singer Sargent to Mrs Van Rensselaer, New York
By descent to George Comenos

Literature

A. du Boulay, Christie's Pictorial History of Chinese Ceramics, p. 66, no. 4.
Chinese Porcelain, the S. C. Ko Tianminlou Collection, Catalogue, vol. 1, no. 69.

Exhibited

Kau Chi Society, Exhibition of Ancient Chinese Ceramics, Hong Kong, 1981, and Taibei, 1982, Catalogue, no. 96.
Christie's London, An Exhibition of Important Chinese Ceramics from the Robert Chang Collection, 2-14 June 1993, Catalogue, no. 26.

Lot Essay

Previously sold in our New York Rooms, 6 November 1980, lot 326.

Only one other doucai narcissus bowl of this pattern in the Baur Collection has been published, bearing a four-character mark within a double circle, illustrated in the Catalogue, vol. II, A149.

The present jardiniere provided the inspiration for two later examples, both with Xuande four-character marks below the rim but dating from the Wanli period, illustrated by L. Reidemeister, Ming-Porzellane in Schwedischen Sammlungen, 1935, pl. 2B.

The painting style of the doucai palette on this jardiniere is more restrained, in keeping with earlier styles of the Chenghua period; and contrasts sharply to the flamboyant wucai colours developed in the later Jiajing and Wanli periods.

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