Lot Essay
Previously sold in London, 19 February 1963, lot 25 and again,
3 December 1963, lot 97.
No other Yongle stemcup of this very rare pattern appears to be recorded.
For a comparison of similar decoration on white ware from the same period, cf. a deep bell-shaped bowl incised with the ba jixiang, Eight Buddhist Emblems, among flower scrolls in the National Palace Museum, Taiwan, illustrated in Monochrome Ware of the Ming Dynasty, Book I, Catalogue, pl. 3.
The calligraphy of the seal script found on Yongle stembowls has been discussed by Liu Xinyuan, Imperial Porcelain of the Yongle and Xuande Periods, pp.74-75, where the author compared its close resemblence to the style of the Hanlin Scholar Shen Du, active early 15th Century.
The present lot is much rarer than the group of anhua-decorated white-glazed stembowls of this period decorated with dragons, such as the example from the Brankston Collection illustrated by Ayers, Far Eastern Ceramics in the Victoria and Albert Museum, col. pl. 43. Brankston illustrates a line drawing of a full-face dragon and the archaistic reign mark in Early Ming Wares of Chingtechen, fig. 1, where he notes that a bowl in the British Museum from the Franks Collection is similarly decorated, as is another bowl from the Eumorfopoulos Collection. Cf. the Oppenheim cup in the British Museum (7-12 276) which is part of the same group. Other related examples include one illustrated by du Boulay, Christie's Pictorial History of Chinese Ceramics, p. 155 top, sold in our London Rooms, 11 December 1978, lot 119; and one from the Frederick M. Mayer Collection, sold in our London Rooms, 24 June 1974, lot 82. Compare also with two others which sold in these Rooms, 31 October 1994, lot 560, and 2 May 1994, lot 642.
(US$80,000-100,000)
3 December 1963, lot 97.
No other Yongle stemcup of this very rare pattern appears to be recorded.
For a comparison of similar decoration on white ware from the same period, cf. a deep bell-shaped bowl incised with the ba jixiang, Eight Buddhist Emblems, among flower scrolls in the National Palace Museum, Taiwan, illustrated in Monochrome Ware of the Ming Dynasty, Book I, Catalogue, pl. 3.
The calligraphy of the seal script found on Yongle stembowls has been discussed by Liu Xinyuan, Imperial Porcelain of the Yongle and Xuande Periods, pp.74-75, where the author compared its close resemblence to the style of the Hanlin Scholar Shen Du, active early 15th Century.
The present lot is much rarer than the group of anhua-decorated white-glazed stembowls of this period decorated with dragons, such as the example from the Brankston Collection illustrated by Ayers, Far Eastern Ceramics in the Victoria and Albert Museum, col. pl. 43. Brankston illustrates a line drawing of a full-face dragon and the archaistic reign mark in Early Ming Wares of Chingtechen, fig. 1, where he notes that a bowl in the British Museum from the Franks Collection is similarly decorated, as is another bowl from the Eumorfopoulos Collection. Cf. the Oppenheim cup in the British Museum (7-12 276) which is part of the same group. Other related examples include one illustrated by du Boulay, Christie's Pictorial History of Chinese Ceramics, p. 155 top, sold in our London Rooms, 11 December 1978, lot 119; and one from the Frederick M. Mayer Collection, sold in our London Rooms, 24 June 1974, lot 82. Compare also with two others which sold in these Rooms, 31 October 1994, lot 560, and 2 May 1994, lot 642.
(US$80,000-100,000)