A FINE BLUE AND WHITE 'GRAPE' CHARGER MING DYNASTY, YONGLE PERIOD |

very finely potted with rounded sides rising from a short tapered foot to a wide everted rim, superbly painted in rich inky tones of cobalt blue accented with characteristic 'heaping and piling', the interior decorated with a medallion enclosing three pendent bunches of grapes suspending from a gnarled vine issuing broad curling leaves and coiling tendrils, surrounded on the cavetto with a leafy composite floral scroll bearing twelve flowering blooms, including chrysanthemum, lotus, peony, carnation and morning glory, all within a border of crashing waves on the rim, the exterior similarly rendered with a different composite floral scroll of twelve floral blossoms, including a lingzhi bloom, the unglazed base fired with subtle orange specks

Collection of Mrs Gertrude Harriman, wife of Mr Otto Harriman, Dunmurry, Northern Ireland, until 1970.
Collection of F. and H. Hitchman, since 1970.
Sotheby's Hong Kong, 24th November 1981, lot 81.

The dish is in very fine condition.
"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."

The elegant design on this dish represents one of the great classic patterns of the Yongle period that demonstrates the developments achieved by Jingdezhen’s potters and painters in the short time period, since blue and white porcelain began to be made there. Indeed, under the Yongle Emperor not only did the quality of porcelain and stylistic sophistication reach unprecedented heights, its value to the court also evolved from that of an exquisite practical item of the imperial household to becoming a commodity with economic and diplomatic potential to the Emperor. The Yongle Emperor was an outward looking monarch, and his reign was marked by numerous official expeditions abroad. Large dishes painted in underglaze blue were made at the imperial kilns in Jingdezhen, Jiangxi province, where production was carefully monitored. Porcelains here were produced for the court, its specifications defined and quality monitored by the court, and its distribution organised by the court and assured through official channel. While quality control was stringent in this period, so as to make porcelains impeccable, designs were jealously guarded, so no copies could be made by lesser kilns that might be confused with the original and in this way harm the repute and prestige of the product.

Dishes painted with this motif, always featuring three clusters of grapes issuing from a single stem, vary in few but distinct ways: the sides are either rounded or lobed and the rims are straight or barbed. Among surviving examples, the present piece is particularly outstanding for its fine potting, smooth, tactile glaze and lush fruit pattern that beautifully displays the characteristic ‘heaping and piling’ of the cobalt blue – a much-copied trademark of imperial blue and white porcelains from the early Ming dynasty.

Dishes of this design made for the court include one from the Qing court collection and still in Beijing, illustrated in Geng Baochang ed., Gugong Bowuyuan cang. Ming chu qinghua ci [Early Ming blue and white porcelain in the Palace Museum], Beijing, 2002, vol. II, pl. 135, together with a dish of this design with a barbed rim, pl. 133; one in the Shanghai Museum, published in Lu Minghua, Mingdai guanyao ciqi [Ming imperial porcelain], Shanghai, 2007, pl. 1-16; and a third, reputedly given by the Empress Dowager Cixi to Sir Robert Hart, Inspector General of the Imperial Maritime Customs at the Chinese Treaty Ports, on his retirement in 1908.

After an interruption in the Hongwu reign, the Yongle Emperor re-established relations with the Timurid ruler Shahrukh Mirza (r. 1405-1447), which led to frequent mutual exchanges of luxury goods between the two empires, including blue and white porcelains. Dishes of this design formerly in the Ardebil Shrine and now in the National Museum of Iran, Tehran, are illustrated in John Alexander Pope, Chinese Porcelains from the Ardebil Shrine, Washington D.C., 1956, pls 37-39, and in Misugi Takatoshi, Chinese Porcelain Collections in the Near East. Topkapi and Ardebil, Hong Kong, 1981, vol. III, pls A 40-42. Dishes of this design are also found in the Topkapi Saray Museum, Istanbul, illustrated in Regina Krahl, Chinese Ceramics in the Topkapi Saray Museum, Istanbul, London, 1986, vol. II, pls 605 and 606; a dish inscribed with the name of the Mughal Shah Jahan ibn Jahangir Shah (AD 1593-1666) and a date equivalent to AD 1643-1644, from the Avery Brundage collection, in the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco, illustrated in The Asian Art Museum of San Francisco. Selected Works, San Francisco, 1994, p. 106, and sold in our London rooms, 24th March 1964, lot 96.

Further dishes of this pattern include a dish from the Swedish Royal Collections, now in the Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities, Stockholm, illustrated in Oriental Ceramics. The World’s Great Collections, vol. 8, Tokyo, 1982, pl. 213; two from the collection of Sir Percival David, the first, now in the British Museum, London, published in Oriental Ceramics. The World’s Great Collections, vol. 6, pl. 74, and the second, sold in our London rooms, 8th July 1974, lot 190; and another dish, illustrated in Regina Krahl, Chinese Ceramics from the Meiyintang Collection, London, vol. 4, 2010, pl. 1638, and sold in these rooms, 4th April 2012, lot 21, from the Meiyintang collection.

The grape motif is comparatively rare on Chinese works of art as the fruit was mainly grown in Central Asia. It was first introduced in the Tang dynasty when the Silk Road enabled a close contact with this region, and re-appeared in the Yuan dynasty, when China again had many economic and cultural ties with the West, before becoming increasingly popular during the Yongle reign.