A very rare blue and white 'lotus' bowl, lianzi wan


YongleThe bowl with deep sides rising from a slightly tapered foot, finely painted on the exterior in dark blue tones with a band of elongated lotus petals below a key-fret band around the rim, the interior with a central spray of fruiting loquat within double circles, surrounded by leafy scrolls of alternating blossoming camellias and chrysanthemum flowerheads and a band of breaking waves at the rim, the deep tones of cobalt with extensive 'heaping and piling'.21cm (8 2/8in) diam.
|明永樂 青花蓮瓣纏枝番紋蓮子盌Provenance: Sotheby's Amsterdam, 14 November 2005, lot 7A European private collection來源：2005年11月14日於阿姆斯特丹蘇富比拍賣，拍品7號歐洲私人收藏A very similar bowl is included in the collection of the Freer Gallery of Art, at the Smythsonian Institute, Washington DC, no.F1951.14a-b. Another is illustrated in The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum: Underglaze blue and red porcelain wares, Hong Kong, 2000, pl.75. Another 'lotus' bowl, Yongle, from the Percival David Collection, now in the British Museum, London, is illustrated in Underglaze Blue and Copper Red Decorated Porcelains in the Percival David Foundation of Chinese Art, London, 2004, no.B637, p.85; a final example is illustrated by R.Krahl, Chinese Ceramics from the Meiyintang Collection, London, 1994, vol.2, fig.670, and was later sold at Sotheby's Hong Kong, 9 October 2012, lot 1851.Two related bowls were sold at Christie's Hong Kong, 1 December 2009, lot 1871, and 31 May 2010, lot 1851; another, from the Lord Cunliffe Collection, was sold at Bonhams London, 12 May 2016, lot 38.