A VERY RARE SMALL INCISED WHITE-GLAZED 'LOTUS SCROLL' MOON FLASK

The present moon flask belongs to a small and very rare group of small moon flasks with shaped handles and six-character Chenghua marks, all with similar body material, delicate clear glaze, and form. The present moon flask appears to be the only example from this group which is incised rather than decorated in doucai enamels.

A moon flask of similar size, form, and with a similarly written Chenghua mark in a line below the mouth rim, but with the addition of doucai decoration is in the Percival David Foundation collection, illustrated in Oriental Ceramics, The World’s Great Collections, volume 7, The Percival David Foundation of Chinese Art, Tokyo, 1976, no. 92. Another doucai-decorated moon flask from this group was sold at Christie’s New York, 23-24 March 2003, lot 1060.