WANLI SIX-CHARACTER MARKS IN UNDERGLAZE BLUE WITHIN A DOUBLE CIRCLE AND OF THE PERIOD (1573-1619)

Details

A PAIR OF BLUE AND WHITE LOTUS BOWLS
WANLI SIX-CHARACTER MARKS IN UNDERGLAZE BLUE WITHIN A DOUBLE CIRCLE AND OF THE PERIOD (1573-1619)
Each painted in the center with two Sanskrit characters encircled by double ruyi borders, below two rows of molded lotus petals rising to the barbed rim, the exterior of the upper row of petals with flower sprigs and Sanskrit characters forming an inscription above a band of projecting petal tips, and with a further narrow band of overlapping petal tips painted in a linear manner above the small ring foot
7½ in. (19 cm.) diam. (2)

Provenance

Morgan Collection, nos. 1189 and 1190.

Lot Essay

Other examples of lotus-form bowls with Wanli marks are illustrated by J. Ayers, The Baur Collection, vol. II, Geneva, 1969, no. A185; by Wang Qing-zheng, Underglaze Blue and Red, Shanghai, 1987, pl. 101; by J. Harrison-Hall, Ming Ceramics in the British Museum, London, 2001, p. 313. Other recorded examples include one in Oriental Ceramics, The World's Great Collections, vol. 11, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Tokyo, 1982, no. 91. Another bowl of Wanli date, but unmarked, in the Institut Neerlandais, Paris, is illustrated by D. Lion-Goldschmidt, Ming Porcelain, New York, 1978, pls. 215 and 215a, where the author notes that these bowls were probably intended to hold offerings in a Lamaist Buddhist temples.

Compare, also, the dish formerly in the Jingguantang Collection, sold in these rooms, 20 March 1997, lot 81.

More from Fine Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art

View All