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Lot Essay
The application of thin, lace-like gilding on a porcelain surface is sometimes known as the kinrande technique, a Japanese term which originally means textile with gold brocade. Kinrande porcelains were popular during the Jiajing period, featuring gilt decorations applied on green, white, iron-red, dark-blue or yellow grounds. Yellow-ground examples are among the most rare, with the present stem bowl being possibly the only example of this shape.
There appears to be only one other Jiajing-marked gilt-decorated yellow-enamelled example recorded, which is a bowl decorated with lotus scroll on the exterior and a medallion with a peacock on the interior, sold at Christie’s Hong Kong, 30 May 2006, lot 1417. Other kinrande porcelains with differently coloured grounds are also recorded, including several in the British Museum – among them two Jiajing-marked white-ground kinrande bowls in the Percival David Foundation, illustrated in Jessica Harrison-Hall, Ming Ceramics in the British Museum, London, 2001, figs. 9:62–63; two green-ground kinrande bowls inscribed with Changming fugui, ‘Long life, wealth, and honour’ on the base, ibid., figs. 9:65–66; a shallow underglaze-blue and green-ground kinrande bowl, fig. 9:64; an underglaze-blue and iron-red-ground kinrande bowl, fig. 9:67; and a red-ground kinrande stem bowl, fig. 9:68. Compare also an iron-red-ground kinrande stem bowl sold at Sotheby’s Hong Kong, Masterpieces of Chinese Ceramics from the Ise Collection, 9 September 2025, lot 5074.
There appears to be only one other Jiajing-marked gilt-decorated yellow-enamelled example recorded, which is a bowl decorated with lotus scroll on the exterior and a medallion with a peacock on the interior, sold at Christie’s Hong Kong, 30 May 2006, lot 1417. Other kinrande porcelains with differently coloured grounds are also recorded, including several in the British Museum – among them two Jiajing-marked white-ground kinrande bowls in the Percival David Foundation, illustrated in Jessica Harrison-Hall, Ming Ceramics in the British Museum, London, 2001, figs. 9:62–63; two green-ground kinrande bowls inscribed with Changming fugui, ‘Long life, wealth, and honour’ on the base, ibid., figs. 9:65–66; a shallow underglaze-blue and green-ground kinrande bowl, fig. 9:64; an underglaze-blue and iron-red-ground kinrande bowl, fig. 9:67; and a red-ground kinrande stem bowl, fig. 9:68. Compare also an iron-red-ground kinrande stem bowl sold at Sotheby’s Hong Kong, Masterpieces of Chinese Ceramics from the Ise Collection, 9 September 2025, lot 5074.