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Diameter 13¼ in., 33.5 cm
来源:埃斯卡納齊,倫敦,1976年之前
图录
说明:The present dish is a fine example of the technical developments achieved by the early Ming dynasty. Yongle porcelains are characterized by their particularly deep blue cobalt, which fired to a dark deep blue in some parts and pale blue in others. This silvery-black and crystal-like separation of colors is known as the 'heaped and piled' effect, and the intensity of tones was highlighted by the finely potted white body of the porcelain clay.
One of the decorative innovations of early fifteenth-century wares was the use of separate floral sprays or bunches of flowers in the cavettos instead of the continuous scroll. The heavy wreath of lotus or peony found on fourteenth-century dishes gave way to more varied series of formalized motifs. Twelve flower sprays consisting of two sets were commonly repeated in order so that each flower was diametrically opposite its pair. With each flower spray encircled by a circular stem with leaves, the present dish is characteristic of the delicate variety that occurred within Yongle design schemes.
A similar dish in the Topkapi Saray Museum, Istanbul, is illustrated in Regina Krahl, Chinese Ceramics in the Topkapi Saray Museum, Istanbul, vol. II, London, 1986, pl. 601; another in the Percival David Foundation is published in Oriental Ceramics. The World's Great Collections, 1982, vol. 6, no. 76; one in the National Palace Museum, Taipei, was included in the Special Exhibition of Early Ming Porcelains, National Palace Museum, Taipei, 1982, cat. no. 38; a fourth is published in Mayuyama. Seventy Years, vol. 1, Tokyo, 1976, pl. 753; other dishes of this design include two in the Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities, Stockholm, illustrated in Jan Wirgin, Chinese Ceramics from the Axel and Nora Lundgren Bequest, Stockholm, 1978, pl. 27, no. 25, and one in the Swedish Royal Collection, published in Oriental Ceramics. The World's Great Collections, vol. 8, Tokyo, 1982, pl. 216. An example from the Mottahedeh Collection, illustrated in Michael Howard and John Ayers, China for the West. Chinese Porcelain and Other Decorative Arts for Export, vol. 1, New York, 1978, p. 12, was sold in these rooms, 20th September 2000, lot 105. Another comparable example was on loan to the Gulbenkian Museum of Oriental Art and Archaeology, Durham, sold at Christie's London, 9th November 2004, lot 131 and again in our Hong Kong rooms, 5th October 2016, lot 3630.
The close interaction between China and the Middle East as reflected in blue and white porcelain of the early Ming dynasty is discussed in the exhibition catalogue Ming: 50 Years that Changed China, the British Museum, London, 2014, pp 86-95.