A FINE MING-STYLE BLUE AND WHITE 'LOTUS' DISH
A FINE MING-STYLE BLUE AND WHITE 'LOTUS' DISH
A FINE MING-STYLE BLUE AND WHITE 'LOTUS' DISH
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PROPERTY FROM A PRIVATE EUROPEAN COLLECTION
A FINE MING-STYLE BLUE AND WHITE 'LOTUS' DISH

YONGZHENG SIX-CHARACTER MARK IN UNDERGLAZE BLUE WITHIN A DOUBLE CIRCLE AND OF THE PERIOD (1723-1735)

Details
A FINE MING-STYLE BLUE AND WHITE 'LOTUS' DISH
YONGZHENG SIX-CHARACTER MARK IN UNDERGLAZE BLUE WITHIN A DOUBLE CIRCLE AND OF THE PERIOD (1723-1735)
The dish is painted in the fifteenth century style in varying vibrant tones of cobalt blue imitating the 'heaping and piling' effect with a central lotus bloom amongst scrolling foliage encircled by a band of the flowers of the four seasons at the rim. The reverse is painted with further delicate lotus scrolls encircling the foot.
5 7/8 in. (14.9 cm.) diam., box
Provenance
Private Swedish collection, acquired in England in the 1950s.
With Antik West, Gothenburg, 26 April 2010.

Lot Essay

The design seen on the current dish draws inspiration from 15th century blue and white wares. Due to impurities in the cobalt used to create blue pigment in the early Ming dynasty (1368-1644), underglaze blue decoration included blackish specks, known as 'heaping and piling'. By the 18th century, potters at the imperial kilns were able to control the tone of blue. The heaping and piling effect was hence imitated using a brush to add small darker stipples to the decoration. The current dish is a fine example of the 18th century pieces that served as a tribute to the pioneering imperial blue and white wares of the Yongle (1403-1424) and Xuande (1426-1435) periods.

Compare the floral decoration on the current dish to a Ming-style blue and white bottle vase of Qianlong mark and period (1736-1795) which sold at Christie's Hong Kong, 3 June 2015, lot 3235.

A blue and white vase of Yongzheng mark and period (1723-1735), decorated with comparable meandering flowers of the four seasons, is in the Collection of the National Palace Museum, illustrated in Porcelain of the National Palace Museum: Blue and White Ware of the Ch'ing Dynasty, Hong Kong, 1968, pp. 66-67, pl. 1.

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