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Lot Essay
The term used to describe bowls of this distinctive form, mantou, is derived from the domed interior center which resembles a mantou bun. The form first appeared during the Yongle period and remained popular in the Xuande period, and was probably inspired from Mamluk metalwork as a result of trade with the Middle East in the Yongle period. An identical Xuande-marked bowl from the Haags Gemeentemuseum, The Hague, is illustrated by D. Lion-Goldschmidt, La Porcelaine Ming, 1978, p. 102, pl. 75.
It is evident that the present bowl followed closely in design and shape to its earlier Yongle-period prototype. Compare this exact arrangement of floral registers on a Yongle bowl included in the catalogue for the Chang Foundation exhibition, Imperial Hongwu and Yongle Porcelain Excavated at Jingdezhen, Taipei, 1996, p. 228, pl. 83.
Compare two related bowls from the Yongle period, both decorated with Persian inscriptions below the exterior mouth rims, the first in the National Palace Museum, Taiwan, illustrated in the Special Exhibition of Early Ming Porcelains, 1982, no. 29; and the other from the E. T. Chow and T. Y. Chao Collections, sold at Sotheby's Hong Kong, 18 November 1986, lot 41, and illustrated in Blue and White Porcelains in the Collection of the Tianminlou Foundation, Hong Kong, 1996, p. 222, no. 94. See, also, a Yongle bowl with a floral band below the exterior mouth rim in the British Museum collection, illustrated by J. Harrison-Hall, Ming Ceramics, London, 2001, fig. 3: 27.
It is evident that the present bowl followed closely in design and shape to its earlier Yongle-period prototype. Compare this exact arrangement of floral registers on a Yongle bowl included in the catalogue for the Chang Foundation exhibition, Imperial Hongwu and Yongle Porcelain Excavated at Jingdezhen, Taipei, 1996, p. 228, pl. 83.
Compare two related bowls from the Yongle period, both decorated with Persian inscriptions below the exterior mouth rims, the first in the National Palace Museum, Taiwan, illustrated in the Special Exhibition of Early Ming Porcelains, 1982, no. 29; and the other from the E. T. Chow and T. Y. Chao Collections, sold at Sotheby's Hong Kong, 18 November 1986, lot 41, and illustrated in Blue and White Porcelains in the Collection of the Tianminlou Foundation, Hong Kong, 1996, p. 222, no. 94. See, also, a Yongle bowl with a floral band below the exterior mouth rim in the British Museum collection, illustrated by J. Harrison-Hall, Ming Ceramics, London, 2001, fig. 3: 27.