YUAN-MING DYNASTY, 14TH-15TH CENTURY

Similar examples inscribed with the numeral si (four) are included in important public and private collections. Purple examples include one in the National Palace Museum, Taipei, illustrated in A Panorama of Ceramics in the Collection of the National Palace Museum: Chün Ware, Taipei, 1999, no. 32 (20 cm.); one in the Percival David Collection now on loan to the British Museum, London, illustrated by Hobson, A Catalogue of Chinese Pottery and Porcelain in the collection of Sir Percival David Collection, London, 1934, Pl. LXIII (lower) (21.9 cm.) with inscriptions recording its use at the Yuexin Hall of Yongan Temple; one in the Tokyo National Museum, illustrated by Mary Tregear, Song Ceramics, London, 1982, no. 171 (21.7 cm.); one gifted by Ernest B. and Helen Pratt Dane to the Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, object number: 1942.185.50 (20 cm.); one from the Robert Chang Collection, sold at Christie’s Hong Kong, 28 November 2006, lot 1304 (19.7 cm.); and a fourth sold at Christie’s New York, 19 March
2009, lot 579 (22.2 cm.). For other similar examples incised with the numeral si in other colours, compare a moon-white example sold at Sotheby’s Hong Kong, 30 April 1996, lot 306 (19.7 cm.); and two blue examples, one sold at Sotheby’s New York, 18 March 2008, lot 100 (20cm.), the other sold at Sotheby’s London, 11 November 2015, lot 81 (21.6cm.).