AN EXTREMELY RARE AND OUTSTANDING COPPER-RED DISH MARK AND PERIOD OF XUANDE |

well potted with rounded sides elegantly rising from a tapered foot to a gently flaring rim, applied with a sacrificial-red glaze of crushed strawberry tone suffused with subtle darker mottling, the rich glaze gradually thinning to a translucent sage green tone at the rim and the foot, the slightly convex base applied with a bluish-white glaze and inscribed in underglaze blue with a six-character reign mark within a double circle

Collection of Mrs Enid and Francis Brodie Lodge.
Sotheby's London, 14th March 1972, lot 147.

Monochrome Porcelain of the Ming and Manchu Dynasties, Oriental Ceramic Society, London, 1948, cat. no. 129.

There are two faint rim hairlines (1 and 1.3cm), and a further one (2cm) to the base just below the mark. Minor glaze crackles and pinpricks to the base.
"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 beautiful, rich red glaze of this dish cannot be better described than with the somewhat over-used term ‘crushed strawberries’. Monochrome copper-red glazes were perfected during the Yongle (1403-1424) and Xuande (1426-1435) reigns, but the large number of discarded sherds at the Jingdezhen kiln sites impressively highlights the difficulties experienced by even the highly accomplished imperial potters of that time to achieve satisfactory results. After the Xuande reign, the copper pigment was therefore almost completely abandoned until it was revived on a grand scale, but never again to similarly striking results, in the Kangxi period (1662-1722) of the Qing dynasty (1644-1911). While copper began to be used at the Jingdezhen porcelain manufactories in the Yuan dynasty (1279-1368) and was experimented with throughout the Hongwu reign (1368-1398), it was only in the Yongle period that a satisfactory bright red began to be achieved after many adjustments of glaze recipes, firing conditions and temperatures; but as Nigel Wood states (Chinese Glazes. Their Origins, Chemistry and Recreation, London, 1999, p. 178), “When we come to examine Xuande (AD 1426-1435) copper-red porcelains from Jingdezhen we are at the very peak of Chinese copper-red porcelain production.”

While both the Yongle and Xuande strata of the waste heaps of the imperial kiln site have brought to light many examples of copper-red pieces that did not meet the high standards of quality control, extant heirloom examples of either period are extremely rare; see two discarded copper-red glazed dishes with underglaze-blue Xuande marks and of the period, one with a fine, deep red glaze on the inside, but a broad area at the rim remaining white on the outside, the other with a mottled greyish red on the outside, were included in the exhibition Imperial Porcelain of the Yongle and Xuande Periods Excavated from the Site of the Ming Imperial Factory at Jingdezhen, Hong Kong Museum of Art, Hong Kong, 1989, cat. nos 69 and 70.

A successfully fired copper-red heirloom dish of similar shape, mark and size as the present piece, in the National Palace Museum, Taipei, was included in the Museum’s exhibition Mingdai Xuande guanyao jinghua tezhan tulu/Catalogue of the Special Exhibition of Selected Hsüan-te Imperial Porcelains of the Ming Dynasty, Taipei, 1998, cat. no. 168, together with another of slightly smaller size, with an incised reign mark, cat. no. 170, and a third of similar size, also with an incised reign mark and left white inside, cat. no. 169.

A similar dish was twice sold at Christie’s Hong Kong, 1st October 1991, lot 764 and 11th June 1996, lot 29; and one from the Wu Lai Hsi collection, perhaps the same as the present dish or as the latter piece, was sold, unillustrated, in these rooms, 26th May 1937, lot 82; a slightly smaller one was sold in these rooms, 24th July 1968, lot 412.

The present dish comes from the collection of Enid and Francis Brodie Lodge (1880-1967), early members and strong supporters of the Oriental Ceramic Society, who contributed to many of the Society’s exhibitions. Their collection comprised ceramics from the Tang (618-907), Song (960-1279), Ming (1368-1644) and Qing dynasties as well as archaic bronzes.