A rare very large Longquan celadon carved dish, Early Ming dynasty, early 15th century

A rare very large Longquan celadon carved dish, Early Ming dynasty, early 15th century.  Estimate $20,000 – $30,000. Photo Christie's Image Ltd 2015.

Heavily potted with rounded sides, the dish is carved in the center with three clusters of grapes borne on a leafy vine below a band of intertwined lingzhi and bamboo in the well and a narrow band of lotus sprays at the rim, and on the exterior with eight fruiting branches including loquat, pomegranate, cherry and possibly lychee, all under a glaze of olive-toned sea-green color that continues over the foot to cover the base apart from the unglazed firing ring. 19 ¾ in. (50.3 cm.) diam.

Provenance: Michael L. Vermeer, Atlanta, Georgia.

Notes: Longquan celadon dishes of this very large size, shape and pattern are very rare. One of two in the Topkapi Saray Museum is illustrated by R. Krahl, Chinese Ceramics in the Topkapi Saray Museum Istanbul, vol. I, London, 1986, p. 231 and p. 302, no. 241. Another similar dish is illustrated in the catalogue of the Thirty-fifth Anniversary Exhibition of the Min Chiu Society, In Pursuit of Antiquities, 22 December 1995 - 18 February 1996, no. 105. 

The grape vine design on these dishes can also be found on blue and white dishes of Yongle date (1403-1425). Two Yongle period examples of blue and white dishes of this shape, decorated in the center with a grape vine bearing three bunches of grapes, but of smaller size (41 cm.) have been published. One by J. A. Pope, Chinese Porcelains from the Ardebil Shrine, Freer Gallery of Art, 1956, pl. 39, and an excavated example illustrated in Imperial Hongwu and Yongle Porcelain excavated at Jingdezhen, Chang Foundation, Taipei, 1996, pp. 166-67, no. 51. The decorative bands on the interior and exterior walls of these blue and white dishes differ from those on the celadon dishes.

Christie's. FINE CHINESE CERAMICS AND WORKS OF ART, 17 - 18 September 2015, New York, Rockefeller Plaza