AN UNUSUAL WHITE LOTUS-PETAL DISH YUAN DYNASTY, EARLY 14TH CENTURY

robustly potted, the broad rounded sides divided into eight bracket foliations, rising from a recessed centre with corresponding foliate edges to an everted rim of conforming outline, all supported on a narrow foot with a thick beveled footring and covered overall with a smooth milky-white glaze pooling to a strong blue tinge where applied in thick layers and a yellow tinge in the thinner areas, the footring and the base left unglazed

Collection of Richard Bryant Hobart (d. 1968).
Sotheby Parke Bernet, New York, 23rd May 1969, lot 104.
Sotheby’s London, 9th December 1975, lot 120.
Collection of The British Rail Pension Fund.
Sotheby’s London, 12th December 1989, lot 89.
Bluett & Sons, London (1991).

Dorchester International Ceramics Fair, London, June 1986.

Hin-cheung Lovell, ‘Sung and Yuan Monochrome Lacquers in the Freer Gallery’, Ars Orientalis, 1973, vol. 9, pl. 14, fig. 29.
Regina Krahl, Chinese Ceramics from the Meiyintang Collection, London, 1994-2010, vol. 2, no. 631.

There are some original firing cracks, including a couple to the central well and a few short ones to the rim visible on p. 61, as well as a few others to the rim on the reverse, located at approx. 2 o'clock (with minor losses), 4 o'clock, and 11 o'clock in the photo on p. 63, with associated discolouration to a grey colour. The lobed rim has a small flake of 0.4 x 1.7 cm (approx. 12 o'clock on p. 61), probably resulted from a couple of fine original firing cracks, adjecent to a further horizontal hairline of 2.7 cm with minor losses. The unglazed foot also has a couple of fine firing cracks to the joint of the footring and the base. The dish also has some typical burst air bubbles, iron spots, glaze gaps and minor wear to the rim.
"In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective, qualified opinion. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

This highly attractive and most unusual dish can be considered as one of the earliest monochrome porcelains from Jingdezhen, deliberately left white at a time when blue-and-white was already being produced there. It appears to have been formed in twin moulds, a rarely used technique, which explains its solid construction. The crisp bracket-lobed shape with corresponding recessed centre is reminiscent in particular of contemporary monochrome lacquer dishes, whose substrate was shaped by moulding the hemp or strips of wood that served as core in a similar manner.

Only three other dishes of this octafoil lotus form are recorded, in the British Museum and the Shanghai Museum, all perhaps made from the same double moulds. A companion dish to the present piece, equally covered with a plain transparent glaze to remain monochrome white, in the British Museum, London, is illustrated in Regina Krahl, ‘A New Look at the Development of Chinese Ceramics’, Orientations, November 1992, p.69, fig. 5; and again in Jessica Harrison-Hall, Ming Ceramics in the British Museum, London, 2001, no. 1: 14.

A dish of the same form in the Shanghai Museum, painted on the inside in underglaze cobalt blue with a lotus pond surrounded by cloud motifs and Buddhist emblems, but the outside left monochrome white, was recently included in the Museum’s exhibition Yulan shencai. Yuandai qinghua ciqi teji/Splendors in Smalt. Art of Yuan Blue-and-white Porcelain, Shanghai, 2012, cat. no. 28 (fig. 1), where a third example in monochrome white, also in the Shanghai Museum, is mentioned, p. 114. 

A very similar vermillion lacquer dish, but with a wider central area inside and a correspondingly shaped underside, where the fluting continues also to the countersunk base, was sold in these rooms, 31st October 2004, lot 206 (fig. 2); and another lacquer dish of this form from the Sedgwick collection was sold in our London rooms, 15th October 1968, lot 56.

The British Museum dish has also been compared with several slightly earlier lotus-shaped lacquer dishes in Monika Kopplin, ed., The Monochrome Principle, Munich, 2008, pls. 18-20 and 22, all of them, however, with a circular rather than a shaped recess in the centre.