A large blue and white Ming style 'dice' bowl, Qing dynasty, Yongzhengs six character mark and period (1723-35).
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The strongly potted bowl well painted around the exterior with an arching lotus scroll bearing six flower-heads, the foot edged with a band of classic scrolls, the rim with the reign mark within a rectangular cartouche reserved on a border of breaking waves. Diameter 29,5 cm.
Wear to interior.
Provenance
The Collection of a Swedish Connoisseur, Stockholm, Part II. The first part of this collection was sold in these rooms in December 2014, Sale 583, lot 1-102. The collection is a study collection, accumulated during a lifetime. The collector operated within the field of oriental works of art. Due to his knowledge and sense of quality he was of great help to many of the members on Kinaklubben (The China Club) with members such as the Swedish Crown Prince Gustav Adolf, Emil Hultmark and Carl Kempe. The collection is mainly acquired in Sweden and London.
Exhibitions
Compare a similar bold sold at Sothebys, Fine Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art, 8 October 2013.
Hong Kong. Lot 2013.
Compare a similar sold in these rooms, Auction 554 lot 1519 from the Collection of Gustaf Wallenberg (1863-1939). The collection was aquired between 1906 and 1918 when Wallenberg was the Swedish Envoyé in Tokyo, from 1907 he was also accredited for Beijing.
Literature
A similar bowl with a mixed floral scroll is illustrated in The Tsui Museum of Art, Chinese Ceramics IV, Qing Dynasty, Hong Kong, 1995, pl 60: and another included in the 1978 Hong Kong Museum of Art exhibition, Ming and Ch'ing Porcelain from the Collection of the T.Y Chao Family Foundation, and illustrated in the Catalogue, no 82.
Compare with the Ming Xuande prototype, a bowl included in An Exhibition of Blue-decorated Porcelain of the Ming Dynasty at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, 1949, illustrated in the Catalogue, pl 62.
More information
These bowls were inspired by thickly potted ‘fruit’ bowls of the early 15th century; see two Xuande mark and period examples in the National Palace Museum, the reign marks also similarly placed horizontally above the flowers, included in Minjin meihin zuroku, vol. 1, Tokyo, 1977, pls. 59 and 60.