YONGLE PERIOD (1403 - 1425)

Details

AN EARLY MING WHITE-GLAZED ANHUA-DECORATED BOWL, LIANZI WAN
YONGLE PERIOD (1403 - 1425)
The bowl is well potted with deep, rounded sides incised on the exterior with a band of slender petals rising to a key-fret band at the rim, and is decorated in anhua on the interior with a central chrysanthemum sprig below a band of leafy composite flower scroll alternately bearing three chrysanthemum and three peony blossoms in the well, and a band of waves at the rim. The small foot is encircled by a band of incised classic scroll. The bowl is covered overall with a glaze of subtle bluish tone.
8 in. (20.4 cm.) diam.

Provenance

Hightower Estate, Houston, before 1960.
Forshee Collection, Michigan, acquired in 1989.

Brought to you by

Michael Bass

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Lot Essay

A very similar bowl, from the Falk Collection, was sold in these rooms, 20 September 2001, lot 132. The incised and molded decoration on both of these bowls is closely linked to blue and white porcelain bowls of the Yongle period, such as the example from the Eli Lilly Collection, Indianapolis Museum of Art, illustrated by S. Valenstein in the exhibition catalogue, Ming Porcelains, A Retrospective, 1970, p. 33, no. 5, where one can clearly see the interior decoration, which is not as easily discernable in the anhua decoration of the present or the Falk bowls. According to the author, the blue and white example does not have a chrysanthemum sprig in the center.

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