Lot Essay
Compare other published examples of this form decorated with the 'Three Friends of Winter' theme: a bowl in the Shanghai Museum collection, illustrated by Wang Qingzheng, Underglaze Blue & Red, Woods Publishing, 1987, no. 53; one from the Herbert Hoover collection, included in The Philadelphia 1949 Exhibition of Ming Blue-and-White, illustrated in the Catalogue, 1954, p. 30, no. 28; one in the Topkapi Saray Museum, illustrated by R. Krahl, Chinese Ceramics in the Topkapi Saray Museum, vol. II, London, 1986, p. 424, no. 610; and a fourth illustrated by John Pope, Chinese Porcelain from the Ardebil Shrine, 1956, pl. 47, no. 29.330. Another Yongle bowl depicting the same subject was sold at Christie's London, 12 October 1970, lot 22.