A FINE AND VERY RARE MING BLUE AND WHITE STEMBOWL
THE PROPERTY OF A GENTLEMAN 
A FINE AND VERY RARE MING BLUE AND WHITE STEMBOWL

Details
A FINE AND VERY RARE MING BLUE AND WHITE STEMBOWL
CHENGHUA PERIOD (1465-1487)

Of thinly potted rounded sides rising to a flaring mouth rim, resting on an elegantly splayed stem foot decorated with eight simple florettes with double-circle borders, the exterior of the bowl is finely painted in bright tones to depict an Indian lotus scroll above overlapping triangular plantain leaves, the interior medallion is painted with a single peony spray within double circles, the glaze has a soft blue tinge
6 15/16 in. (17.7 cm.) high, box
Literature
A. du Boulay, Christie's Pictorial History of Chinese Ceramics, 1984, p. 120, pl. 4.
Exhibited
An Exhibition of Important Chinese Ceramics from the Robert Chang Collection, Christie's London, 1993, Catalogue, p. 42, no. 13.

Lot Essay

Previously sold in our London Rooms, 15 July 1981, lot 89.

The design of scrolling lotus is well-known on what is known as 'palace bowls' of the Chenghua period, although as a decorative motif on a stembowl the present lot is unique. Compare the closely related painting style with two Chenghua-marked palace bowls, both included in the exhibition, A Legacy of Chenghua, Hong Kong, 1993, and illustrated in the Catalogue, p. 243, C77; and p. 245, C78. Both bowls are from the late Chenghua stratum, the first is decorated with a lotus scroll of large and small flowers growing from a single outlined stem, in a very similar style to the present stembowl; and the other bowl with lotus flowers joined to a stem depicted by double outlines.

Compare also the bowl with this design from the Alfred Clark Collection, illustrated by Messrs Spink & Son, Catalogue, 1974, no. 26; and the more stylised lotus flowers painted on a bowl from the Ardebil Shrine, illustrated by J. A. Pope, Chinese Porcelains from the Ardebil Shrine, pl. 64, no. 29.344.

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