A VERY RARE MING BLUE AND WHITE 'PALACE' BOWL

Details
A VERY RARE MING BLUE AND WHITE 'PALACE' BOWL
ENCIRCLED CHENGHUA SIX-CHARACTER MARK AND OF THE PERIOD

With steeply rounded sides rising from a short tapering foot to a slightly flaring rim, the exterior delicately painted with a continuous undulating leafy scroll issuing four lily blooms between double lines around the rim and base, the interior similarly painted around a floral medallion (minute rim chip restored)
5 7/8 in. (15 cm.) diam., box
Provenance
Peter Boode, purchased in January 1936 (L50).
Mr. and Mrs. R.H.R. Palmer, no.403, sold in these Rooms, 17 January 1989, lot 575.
Literature
The Tsui Museum of Art, 1991, pl. 74.
Exhibited
Selected Treasures of Chinese Art, Min Chiu Society Thirtieth Anniversary Exhibition, Hong Kong, 1990/1991, Catalogue, pl. 135.

Lot Essay

'Palace' bowls are painted with a range of botanical designs including musk mallow, camellia, hibiscus and fruiting melon. Of them all, the lily is perhaps the most elegant in its simplicity and delicacy, leaving more space around the design than other scrolls and enhancing the shape most effectively.

Another example painted with the lily scroll from the Charles B. Hoyt Collection, now in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, is illustrated in Oriental Ceramics, vol. 10, no. 221, and Asiatic Art in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, col.pl. 35A. See also the bowls in the Percival David Foundation illustrated by Rosemary Scott in Elegant Form and Harmonious Decoration, no. 51 and the Herschel V. Johnson Collection illustrated by Sir Harry Garner, Oriental Blue and White, pl. 35B. Two from the National Palace Museum, Taiwan, were included in the Special Exhibition of Chenghua Porcelain, Catalogue, nos. 13 and 82. Another from the Cunliffe Collection was exhibited at the O.C.S., London, 1954, Chinese Blue and White Porcelain, 14th to 19th Centuries, Catalogue, no. 104.

The designation 'Palace' bowl is reflected in the sheer quality of the potting and painting, although such bowls form one of the larger groups among the different types of blue and white produced during the Chenghua period. The Percival David has some six different examples alone; the British Musuem four; and Soame Jenyns discovered 20 in a single crate during his visit to Pei-Kou in 1957-58, cf. T.O.C.S., 1957-59, vol. 31, p. 52.

(US$240,000-280,000)

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