YONGLE PERIOD (1403-1425)

‘Grapes’ is one of the most popular motifs found on large Yongle blue and white dishes of this type. The sides are either rounded or lobed, and the everted rims are straight or barbed. For similar Yongle blue and white dishes with identical motifs, compare to an example in the Shanghai Museum Collection, illustrated in Mingdai gunayao ciqi, Shanghai, 2007, p. 17, no. 1-16 (fig.1); one formerly in the collection of Gustav VI Adolf, now in the Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities, Stockholm, illustrated in Oriental Ceramics, Kodansha Series, vol. 9, Tokyo, 1976, no. 216; one in the Percival David Foundation, British Museum, museum number: PDF.685; one in the Topkapi Palace Museum, Istanbul, illustrated in Chinese Ceramics in the Topkapi Saray Museum Istanbul II – Yuan and Ming Dynasty Porcelains, London, 1986, no. 606 ; and five examples originally housed in the Ardabil Shrine, now in the National Museum of Iran, illustrated in J.A. Pope, Chinese Porcelains from the Ardebil Shrine, London, 1981, nos. 29.50–54.

For similar examples sold at auctions, see one sold at Sotheby’s Hong Kong, The Meiyintang Collection, Part III, 3 April 2012, lot 21; one sold at Christie’s New York, 16 September 2016, lot 1318; one sold Sotheby’s Hong Kong, Ceramics And Jades From The Collection Of Sir Quo-Wei Lee, 2 October 2018, lot 110; one sold at Christie’s New York, 25 March 2022, lot 1045; and one sold at Sotheby’s Hong Kong, Masterpieces of Asian Art from the Okada Museum of Art, 22 November 2025, lot 1065.