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Lot Essay
An identical Xuande-marked bowl from the Haags Gemeentemuseum, The Hague, is illustrated by D. Lion Goldschmidt, La Porcelaine Ming, 1978, p. 102, pl. 75.
It is evident that the present bowl followed closely in design and shape to its earlier Yongle prototype. Compare this exact arrangement of floral registers on a Yongle bowl included in the exhibition, Imperial Hongwu and Yongle Porcelain Excavated at Jingdezhen, Chang Foundation, 1996, illustrated in the Catalogue, p. 228, pl. 83; where the author notes its Islamic form and decoration as being influenced by trade with the Middle East in the Yongle period.
Compare with two related bowls of the Yongle period, both decorated with Persian inscriptions below the exterior mouth rims, the first in the National Palace Museum, Taiwan, included in the Special Exhibition of Early Ming Porcelains, 1982, illustrated in the Catalogue, no. 29; and the other from the E. T. Chow and T. Y. Chao Collections, sold at Sotheby's Hong Kong, 18 November 1986, lot 41, and illustrated in Blue and White Porcelains in the Collection of the Tianminlou Foundation, Hong Kong, 1996, p. 222, no. 94. Also compare a Yongle bowl with a floral band below the exterior mouth rim in the British Museum collection, illustrated by J. Harrison-Hall, Ming Ceramics, London, 2001, fig. 3:27.
It is evident that the present bowl followed closely in design and shape to its earlier Yongle prototype. Compare this exact arrangement of floral registers on a Yongle bowl included in the exhibition, Imperial Hongwu and Yongle Porcelain Excavated at Jingdezhen, Chang Foundation, 1996, illustrated in the Catalogue, p. 228, pl. 83; where the author notes its Islamic form and decoration as being influenced by trade with the Middle East in the Yongle period.
Compare with two related bowls of the Yongle period, both decorated with Persian inscriptions below the exterior mouth rims, the first in the National Palace Museum, Taiwan, included in the Special Exhibition of Early Ming Porcelains, 1982, illustrated in the Catalogue, no. 29; and the other from the E. T. Chow and T. Y. Chao Collections, sold at Sotheby's Hong Kong, 18 November 1986, lot 41, and illustrated in Blue and White Porcelains in the Collection of the Tianminlou Foundation, Hong Kong, 1996, p. 222, no. 94. Also compare a Yongle bowl with a floral band below the exterior mouth rim in the British Museum collection, illustrated by J. Harrison-Hall, Ming Ceramics, London, 2001, fig. 3:27.