A SMALL BLUE AND WHITE BARBED DISH MING DYNASTY, YONGLE PERIOD |

the flat dish painted in inky-washes of vivid cobalt-blue with scattered flecks of silvery 'heaping and piling', the interior with a central medallion enclosing two peaches borne on a leafy stem, framed by a collar of radiating petals and a wreath of scrolling peony, the well divided into eight fluted panels, each painted with a single lotus spray, set below a sharply everted barbed rim with a band of crested waves, the underside with eight floral sprays including peony, chrysanthemum, peach and lotus enclosed within single line borders, the shallow glazed base burnt to a peachy brown

An English Private Collection. 
Marchant Ltd., London.

Ming Porcelain, Marchant, London, 2009, cat. no. 5 and illustrated on the catalogue cover.
Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, Missouri, from 2013 (on loan). 

The dish is in excellent condition, the brilliant glaze with very little wear. Compared to the illustrations, the cobalt is slightly softer in tone and the glaze is slightly warmer with a faint bluish tinge, both typical of Yongle period ceramics of this type.
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.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

This dish is a picture-book example that embodies the beauty and outstanding quality of blue-and-white wares from the Yongle reign (1403-1424), arguably the best period for the production of porcelain decorated in underglaze cobalt blue. Under the strict supervision of the court, the imperial porcelain kilns at Jingdezhen radically improved the materials used for throwing, glazing and painting in this period, which in the preceding Hongwu reign (1368-1398) had still led to a somewhat haphazard production line. By the Yongle period blue-and-white had developed a reliable standard and a distinct identity that made it one of the most highly revered ceramic wares throughout history. The present dish displays to perfection the features that characterize Yongle blue-and-white: the orange tone of the body, where it remained exposed, the bluish tinge of the transparent glaze, the bright cobalt blue, and particularly the tendency of the iron-rich pigment to fire through the glaze to form blackish spots on the surface, known as ‘heaping and piling’. The barbed shape and the painted flower design are equally characteristic of this great period. Although both are directly derived from Hongwu prototypes, in the Yongle period they were equally improved in every respect. Hongwu prototypes were molded as cup stands, with the ring of petal panels painted onto a raised ring in the centre that would hold the cup. Dishes such as the present one are also believed to have been intended for this purpose, but with their flat centers would obviously have been much more universally useable. The way the short petal panels are painted, however, has a trompe-l’oeil effect, also suggesting a raised ring.

In the Hongwu period, the bracket shape, created by double molds, had sharp angles, ridges and grooves, and a thick, angular rim. In the Yongle reign, the brackets – in China likened to the form of the water caltrop (ling) – were much softened and the rim became broader and thinner, with a well-rounded edge; for the Hongwu prototype compare a dish excavated from the Ming imperial kiln site, included in the exhibition Imperial Hongwu and Yongle Porcelain Excavated at Jingdezhen, Chang Foundation, Taipei, 1996, cat. no. 17.

The painted decoration, which on the Hongwu examples is very precise and orderly, in the Yongle reign became much more lively and less formal. On the present dish, the graceful rose design seems to be in motion, the buds swaying in the wind, and the lotus sprays seem to be dancing, their stems swirling in different directions. Similar Yongle dishes also exist with other related flower designs, but the present pattern is particularly impressive because of its powerful wave border with undulating and crescent waves painted in thick brush strokes, reinforcing the sense of movement which pervades the whole pattern.

A dish of this design in the National Palace Museum, Taipei, was included in the Museum’s exhibition Shi yu xin: Mingdai Yongle huangdi de ciqi/Pleasingly Pure and Lustrous: Porcelains from the Yongle Reign (1403-1424) of the Ming Dynasty, Taipei, 2017, catalogue, p. 60, where it is illustrated together with a small bracket-lobed cup, p. 61, of a type that may have been used together with such dishes; that dish was also included in the exhibition Mingdai chunian ciqi tezhan mulu/Catalogue of a Special Exhibition of Early Ming Period Porcelain, National Palace Museum, Taipei, 1982, cat. no. 42, where it is illustrated in color. Another dish of this design, but attributed to the Xuande period, is in the Shanghai Museum, published in Lu Minghua, Shanghai Bowuguan cangpin yanjiu daxi/Studies of the Shanghai Museum Collections: A Series of Monographs. Mingdai guanyao ciqi [Ming imperial porcelain], Shanghai, 2007, pl. 1-23.

A similar dish from the collection of Captain and Mrs. Ferris Luboshez, included in the Exhibition of Chinese Art from the Ferris Luboshez Collection, University of Maryland Art Gallery, College Park, Maryland, 1972, cat. no. 129 and illustrated as fig. 9, was sold three times in our Hong Kong rooms, 16th November 1973, lot 137; 29th November 1977, lot 24; and 15th May 1990, lot 21, and is illustrated in Sotheby’s Hong Kong – Twenty Years, 1973-1993, Hong Kong, 1993, pl. 70; another from the collections of A.D. Brankston, Mrs. W. H. Roberts, and later T.Y. Chao, was sold in our London rooms, 30th March 1978, lot 175, and in our Hong Kong rooms, 19th May 1987, lot 239; compare also two other dishes of this design, but with small floral sprigs instead of the waves around the rim, thus creating a completely different impression: one from the collections of Richard Bryant Hobart and later F. Gordon Morrill, exhibited at the William Hayes Fogg Art Museum, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, sold in these rooms, 12th December 1969, lot 254, and at Doyle, New York, 16th September 2003, lot 80; the other sold in our Hong Kong rooms, 1^st November 1999, lot 314.