A fine blue and white 'lotus bouquet' dish, Ming dynasty, Yongle period

Collection of Samuel H. Minkenhof (1879-1956), and thence by descent.

Blue and white dishes of this shape and motif represent one of the most iconic designs of the Yongle period. The celebrated lotus bouquet motif, with its unexpected combination of lotus flowers, leaves and water weeds tied with a ribbon, evokes vividly coloured lotus ponds in full bloom during summer. Such designs were often executed with slight variations on the rim, which could range between classic scroll, keyfret or wave borders; the present dish with its elegant everted rim belongs to this distinguished group.

This design was particularly admired at the time and became a classic of the Yongle repertoire. It was also widely exported to the Middle East with the expansion of maritime trade, as evidenced by the large number of extant examples preserved in Islamic collections. Thirty-four ‘lotus bouquet’ dishes of varying sizes are recorded in the Ardebil Shrine, Iran, including several published in John Alexander Pope, Chinese Porcelains from the Ardebil Shrine, Washington, D.C., 1956, pls. 30 and 31. See also a dish illustrated in Regina Krahl and John Ayers, Chinese Ceramics in the Topkapi Saray Museum, Istanbul, vol. II, London, 1986, no. 604.

Beyond the Middle East, important examples of this size, design and with an everted rim are preserved in major museum collections worldwide. Compare a dish from the Sir Percival David Collection in the British Museum, London, published in Margaret Medley, Illustrated Catalogue of Underglaze Blue and Copper Red Decorated Porcelain, London, 1976, pl. A664. Another example is preserved in the Tokyo National Museum (acc. no. TG893), and a third was featured on the poster for the exhibition The Ming Myth. Blue and White Porcelain, 1368–1644, Museum of East Asian Art, Cologne, 2025.

Further comparable examples include one with a similar everted rim sold in our Hong Kong rooms, 3rd-4th May 1994, lot 35 ; one from the Dr Wou Kiuan Collection sold in our New York rooms, 22nd March 2022, lot 11 ; and another smaller dish from the Collection of Sir Quo-Wei Lee II, sold in our Hong Kong rooms, 7th October 2019, lot 129. A further example from the Meiyintang Collection, illustrated in Regina Krahl, Chinese Ceramics from the Meiyintang Collection, vol. 2, London, 1994, pl. 665, was sold in our Hong Kong rooms, 4th April 2012, lot 37.

The design was later revived by the imperial kilns during the Yongzheng and Qianlong periods of the Qing dynasty, with several examples preserved in the Palace Museum, Beijing, illustrated in Geng Baochang, ed., Gugong Bowuyuan cang Ming chu qinghua ci [Early Ming Blue-and-White Porcelain in the Palace Museum], vol. II, Beijing, 2002, pls. 195, 199 and 203.