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Lot Essay
The design on this dish is typically described as 'lotus bouquet' as the majority of the flowers, pod and leaves belong to the auspicious lotus plant. However, the bouquet also includes additional auspicious plants, such as the arrow-shaped sagittaria saggittifolia, a symbol both of generosity and of food in a time of shortage, and a stalk of millet, symbolizing an abundance of grain.
A dish of this design and size in the collection of the National Palace Museum, Taiwan, is illustrated in Porcelain of the National Palace Museum: Blue-and-White Ware of the Ming Dynasty, Book II, Part 2, Hong Kong, 1963, pp. 146-7, pl. 59. A dish of this pattern was excavated from the Yongle stratum of the site of the imperial kiln at Jingdezhen in 1994, and is illustrated in Imperial Hongwu and Yongle Porcelain Excavated at Jingdezhen, Chang Foundation, Taipei, 1996, pp. 144-5, no. 40. Compare, also, a dish of this design and three dishes of related design, but with wave bands around the interior and exterior rims, illustrated by J.A. Pope, Chinese Porcelains from the Ardebil Shrine, Washington, 1956, pl. 31.
A dish of this design and size in the collection of the National Palace Museum, Taiwan, is illustrated in Porcelain of the National Palace Museum: Blue-and-White Ware of the Ming Dynasty, Book II, Part 2, Hong Kong, 1963, pp. 146-7, pl. 59. A dish of this pattern was excavated from the Yongle stratum of the site of the imperial kiln at Jingdezhen in 1994, and is illustrated in Imperial Hongwu and Yongle Porcelain Excavated at Jingdezhen, Chang Foundation, Taipei, 1996, pp. 144-5, no. 40. Compare, also, a dish of this design and three dishes of related design, but with wave bands around the interior and exterior rims, illustrated by J.A. Pope, Chinese Porcelains from the Ardebil Shrine, Washington, 1956, pl. 31.