A RARE BLUE AND WHITE FRUIT BOWL MARK AND PERIOD OF XUANDE |

well potted with low rounded sides supported on a straight foot, brightly painted around the exterior in cobalt-blue tones with six detached flowering and fruiting sprays, including peach, pomegranate, loquat, grape, persimmon and longan, above a border of petal lappets and band of floral sprays encircling the lower body and foot respectively, the interior and the base left white, the footring unglazed, inscribed with a six-character horizontal reign mark below the rim

Christie's Hong Kong, 1st October 1991, lot 745.

Tianminlou qinghua ci tezhan [Special exhibition of blue and white porcelain from the Tianminlou collection], Shanghai Museum, Shanghai, 1996.
The Radiant Ming 1368-1644 through the Min Chiu Society Collection, Hong Kong Museum of History, Hong Kong, 2015-2016, cat. no. 121.

Blue and White Porcelain from the Collection of Tianminlou Foundation, Shanghai, 1996, no. 47.

The bowl is in overall very good condition, with only the interior polished. Some expected general surface scratches and minor glaze firing imperfections.
"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."

Painted in vibrant tones of cobalt, the fruit motif on this bowl can be considered one of the most successful patterns of the early Ming dynasty and belongs to the central repertoire of the Xuande Imperial kilns. The present example is particularly remarkable for the delicate rendering of fruits with broad washes of cobalt and fine brushstrokes. Bowls with such elegant motifs display the newly awakened interest in fine blue and white porcelain at the Xuande court. It is in this period, that porcelain catered mostly for the imperial family, hence vessels reflect in both size and taste the aesthetic ideals of the period. Such high quality porcelain, inscribed with the Xuande reign mark, was made exclusively at the imperial kilns in Jingdezhen, which were under the strict supervision of palace eunuchs and local officials. The Imperial Porcelain Bureau was established in Jingdezhen in the second year of Hongwu (1369), although officials and eunuchs were not sent there to supervise production until the Xuande reign. The court would commission wares with decorations based on guanyang (official designs) or huaben (model drawings). Official records of porcelain production are limited and do not mention this particular mixed fruit design. Only three orders for porcelain are recorded: one in the first year of Hongxi, corresponding to 1424, and the second and third in the fifth and eighth year of Xuande, corresponding to 1430 and 1433 respectively. The large quantity of extant porcelains with Xuande marks and of the period, as well as the impressive number of shards recovered at the imperial kiln site at Zhushan, Jingdezhen, clearly show that a large quantity of wares made in the period did not enter into the official records. A fragmentary bowl of this pattern excavated from the waste heaps of the Ming imperial kilns in Jingdezhen is illustrated in Lu Minghua, Mingdai guanyao ciqi [Ming imperial porcelain], Shanghai, 2007, pl. 3-121.

A bowl of this type painted with fruit, in the National Palace Museum, Taipei, was included in the Museum’s Special Exhibition of Selected Hsüan-te Imperial Porcelains of the Ming Dynasty, Taipei, 1998, cat. no. 47; one from the collection of Sir Percival David, now in the British Museum, London, is illustrated in Oriental Ceramics. The World’s Great Collections, vol. 6, Tokyo, 1980, pl. 98; and another in the Freer Gallery of Art, Washington D.C., was included in the exhibition Ming Porcelains in the Freer Gallery of Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., 1953, pl. 10. 

A further bowl of this design from numerous notable private collections including the Meiyintang collection, and illustrated in Regina Krahl, Chinese Ceramics from the Meiyintang Collection, vol. 4, London, 2010, pl. 1655, was sold three times in our London rooms, and most recently in these rooms, 5th October 2011, lot 13; another from the collection of Stephen Junkunc III, was sold in our New York rooms, 22nd March 1995, lot 234; and a third from the Toguri collection, illustrated in Min Shin no bijutsu [The art of Ming and Qing], Tokyo, 1982, pl. 6, was sold in our London rooms, 9th June 2004, lot 16.

Bowls of this form are also known painted with a lotus scroll, such as lot 7 in this sale, with a peony scroll, lot 11, or with a mixed floral scroll, lot 9. The original function of these bowls, which are particularly sturdy and are undecorated on the interior, is a matter of debate. For a discussion on their function see lot 11.