.jpg?w=1)
Lot Essay
The bowl is incised in anhua with sinuous scaly dragons striding around the well, and the four-character reign mark inscribed in archaic script within a roundel at the centre of the bowl.
The present stem bowl has the beautifully balanced profile characteristic of the early 15th century, and is covered in the soft lustrous white glaze, which is called tianbai or 'sweet white' in Chinese. This glaze was developed in the Yongle reign and appears to have been a particular favourite of the emperor. More than ninety percent of the porcelains from this period, which were found at the site of the imperial kilns, were white wares. This reflects the aesthetic preference of the emperor, who demonstrated a special appreciation of plain white items, such as white jades. It is also a reflection of his adherence to Lamaist Buddhism.
This stem bowl also belongs to one of the earliest groups of porcelains to bear the reign mark of the ruling emperor. On the interior of the stem bowl is a four-character reign mark reading Yongle nian zhi, 'Made in the Yongle reign', which is written in a style of calligraphy based on that of the emperor's favourite calligrapher, Shen Du. The reign of the Yongle Emperor was the first in which reign marks regularly appeared on porcelains made for the Chinese court.
There are very few examples of Yongle-marked white-glazed stem bowls with anhua-decorated dragons. An almost identical example is in the National Palace Museum, Taipei, illustrated by Liu Liang-yu, A Survey of Chinese Ceramics - 4 - Ming Official Wares, Taipei, 1991, p. 35. Also in the same collection is another stem bowl decorated with five dragons, collection number: guci 003170. A further example was exhibited at Hong Kong Museum of Art, #popcolours: The Aesthetics of Hues in Antiquities from the HKMoA Collection, Hong Kong, 5 November 2021 – 30 March 2022.
Compare also with a similar Yongle-marked white-glazed stem bowl decorated with two five-clawed dragons, sold at Christie’s London, The Frederick M. Mayer Collection of Chinese Art, 24 June 1974, lot 82. Another comparable but decorated with the Eight Buddhist Emblems, was sold at Christie’s Hong Kong, 1 June 2016, lot 3221.
The present stem bowl has the beautifully balanced profile characteristic of the early 15th century, and is covered in the soft lustrous white glaze, which is called tianbai or 'sweet white' in Chinese. This glaze was developed in the Yongle reign and appears to have been a particular favourite of the emperor. More than ninety percent of the porcelains from this period, which were found at the site of the imperial kilns, were white wares. This reflects the aesthetic preference of the emperor, who demonstrated a special appreciation of plain white items, such as white jades. It is also a reflection of his adherence to Lamaist Buddhism.
This stem bowl also belongs to one of the earliest groups of porcelains to bear the reign mark of the ruling emperor. On the interior of the stem bowl is a four-character reign mark reading Yongle nian zhi, 'Made in the Yongle reign', which is written in a style of calligraphy based on that of the emperor's favourite calligrapher, Shen Du. The reign of the Yongle Emperor was the first in which reign marks regularly appeared on porcelains made for the Chinese court.
There are very few examples of Yongle-marked white-glazed stem bowls with anhua-decorated dragons. An almost identical example is in the National Palace Museum, Taipei, illustrated by Liu Liang-yu, A Survey of Chinese Ceramics - 4 - Ming Official Wares, Taipei, 1991, p. 35. Also in the same collection is another stem bowl decorated with five dragons, collection number: guci 003170. A further example was exhibited at Hong Kong Museum of Art, #popcolours: The Aesthetics of Hues in Antiquities from the HKMoA Collection, Hong Kong, 5 November 2021 – 30 March 2022.
Compare also with a similar Yongle-marked white-glazed stem bowl decorated with two five-clawed dragons, sold at Christie’s London, The Frederick M. Mayer Collection of Chinese Art, 24 June 1974, lot 82. Another comparable but decorated with the Eight Buddhist Emblems, was sold at Christie’s Hong Kong, 1 June 2016, lot 3221.