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.
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.