Lot Essay
It is rare to find Chenghua meipings with this decoration, however a near identical example in The Freer Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. is illustrated in Oriental Ceramics, The World's Great Collections, Kondasha Series, vol. 9, fig. 107; the Freer example is most probably the one illustrated by Geng Baschang Ming Qing Ciqi Jianding, no. 76, where he mentions another similar example in the Canton Museum.
A Chenghua guan painted with scholars drinking wine, playing go and contemplating the moon within an similar setting and with identical borders was sold in these Rooms, 23 March 1993, lot 718.
Borders of triangular plantain leaves with ridged edges are often found on Chenghua period wares, cf. a large guan painted with variegated floral sprays beneath a plantain border sold in these Rooms, Compare also to a Chenghua meiping from the collections of Robert C. Bruce and H.R.N. Norton, illustrated in the O.C.S. Exhibition of Ming Blue and White porcelain, London, 1946, Catalogue, no. 97 and by Adrian M. Joseph, Ming Porcelains, Their Origins and Development, no. 39, along with a companion vase. Leaf borders on Chenghua jars in Wucai enamels can be seen in Ming Qing Ciqi Jianding, no. 79. Earlier porcelain examples with this type of leaf border exist. Cf. a Xuande-marked guan in the National Palace Museum, Taibei, illustrated in Blue and White Ware of the Ming Dynasty, book II, (part I), no. 2; and on a Xuande-marked vase, ibid., no. 4
A Chenghua guan painted with scholars drinking wine, playing go and contemplating the moon within an similar setting and with identical borders was sold in these Rooms, 23 March 1993, lot 718.
Borders of triangular plantain leaves with ridged edges are often found on Chenghua period wares, cf. a large guan painted with variegated floral sprays beneath a plantain border sold in these Rooms, Compare also to a Chenghua meiping from the collections of Robert C. Bruce and H.R.N. Norton, illustrated in the O.C.S. Exhibition of Ming Blue and White porcelain, London, 1946, Catalogue, no. 97 and by Adrian M. Joseph, Ming Porcelains, Their Origins and Development, no. 39, along with a companion vase. Leaf borders on Chenghua jars in Wucai enamels can be seen in Ming Qing Ciqi Jianding, no. 79. Earlier porcelain examples with this type of leaf border exist. Cf. a Xuande-marked guan in the National Palace Museum, Taibei, illustrated in Blue and White Ware of the Ming Dynasty, book II, (part I), no. 2; and on a Xuande-marked vase, ibid., no. 4