A very rare blue and white anhua-decorated 'phoenix' bowl, Mark and period of Xuande | 明宣德 青花暗花穿蓮祥鳳紋盌 《大明宣德年製》款

Sotheby's Hong Kong, 5th November 1996, lot 744.

J.J. Lally & Co., New York.

Meiyintang Collection.

Sotheby's Hong Kong, 8th April 2013, lot 35.

香港蘇富比1996年11月5日，編號744

藍理捷，紐約

玫茵堂收藏

香港蘇富比2013年4月8日，編號35

Regina Krahl, Chinese Ceramics from the Meiyintang Collection, vol. 4, London, 1994-2010, pl. 1659.

康蕊君，《玫茵堂中國陶瓷》，卷4，倫敦，1994-2010年，圖版1659

This design, which might appear to be a classic pattern of the Xuande repertoire, is in fact extremely rare and no exact companion piece appears to have been published. A very similar, but much smaller bowl, apparently lacking the anhua on the inside, discarded at the time and now excavated at the waste heaps of the Ming imperial kiln site, was included in the exhibition Jingdezhen chutu Yuan Ming guanyao ciqi [Yuan’s and Ming’s Imperial Porcelain Unearthed from Jingdezhen], Yan-Huang Art Museum, Beijing, 1999, cat. no. 134, together with a 'dragon' counterpart with a slightly more complex design inside, ibid., cat. no. 133; and a Chenghua version of the phoenix design, ibid., cat. no. 293.

The same phoenix design is also found on a bowl of different proportions, narrower and deeper, in the Taipei Palace Museum, see Catalogue of the Special Exhibition of Selected Hsüan-te Imperial Porcelains of the Ming Dynasty, Taipei, 1998, cat. no. 59; and on dishes, for example, ibid., cat. no. 192.

See also a bowl of similar form and design on the exterior, but with cloud motif and classic scroll on the interior, formerly in the collection of Richard Bryant Hobart, published in Fujioka Ryoichi and Hasebe Gakuji, Sekai tōji zenshū [Ceramic Art of the World], vol. 14: Ming Dynasty, Tokyo, 1976, col. pls 23 and 24, and was sold in our New York rooms, 12th December 1969, lot 257.

It is rare to find the lotus lappets as seen on the present bowl; this unique motif first was developed in the Yongle period. Compare a 'dragon' bowl in the Beijing Palace Museum, again with cloud motif and classic scroll on the interior, illustrated in Geng Baochang, ed., Gugong Bowuyuan cang Ming chu qinghua ci [Early Ming Blue-and-White Porcelain in the Palace Museum], vol. 1, Beijing, 2002, pl. 46.

本品繪穿蓮祥鳳，乍看屬宣德朝典型紋樣，卻竟無近例著錄於冊，極為珍罕。明御窰廠遺址棄置廢品堆中，出土一相似例，尺寸略小，且欠暗花，展覽於《景德鎮出土元明官窰瓷器》，炎黃藝術館，北京，1999年，編號134，同場亦展出一件與本器相配之龍紋盌，器內紋樣繁縟，見編號133，再見一成化相類鳳紋例，編號293。

穿蓮鳳紋，且見於仰鐘式盌上，參考台北故宮博物院藏一例，收錄於《明代宣德官窰菁華特展圖錄》，台北，1998年，圖版59；另有一盤例，載於同書圖版192。

另有一盌，與本品器形、尺寸及外壁紋飾相近，惟盌內繪卷草及雲紋，屬 Richard Bryant Hobart 舊藏，載於《世界陶磁全集》，卷14：明，東京，1976年，圖版23及24，後售於紐約蘇富比1969年12月12日，編號257。

此盌足上繪變形蓮瓣，繪飾細緻，源於永樂一朝，相類例見北京故宮博物院藏永樂龍紋盌，盌心繪卷草雲紋，載於耿寶昌編，《故宮博物院藏明初青花瓷》，卷1，北京，2002年，圖版46。