YUAN DYNASTY (1279-1368)

This magnificent charger is impressive not only for its size exceeding 42 cm. in diameter, it also combines multiple decorative techniques, seen on the ‘blue-on-white’ motifs in the centre; reverse ‘white-on-blue’ motifs on the well; and additional moulded decorations in relief. The barbed-rim shape adds further complexity to the design. Chargers of such complicated design would have been very costly and time-consuming to produce, and only small quantities were made for the upper echelon of society.

The most distinct feature on this charger is the moulded decorations of various fruits including grapes, lychee, pomegranate, peach and plum on the well. Most comparable examples are moulded with floral scrolls on the well. Another highly unusual feature is the florettes amidst waves decorated on the rim. No other example of this pattern is recorded, presumably this dish is unique.

Chargers of similar design and decorations but with moulded peony or lotus scrolls on the well include:
1) one in the Topkapi Saray Museum, illustrated in Regina Krahl, Chinese Ceramics in the Topkapi Saray Museum, Istanbul, ed. John Ayers, London, 1986, vol. 2, no. 56;
2) one in the Shanghai Museum, illustrated in Splendors in Smalt. Art of Yuan Blue-and-white Porcelain, Shanghai Museum, Shanghai, 2012, cat. no. 27 (fig. 1);
3) one in the Ardabil Shrine in Iran, is illustrated in John Alexander Pope, Chinese Porcelains from the Ardebil Shrine, Washington, D.C., 1956, pl. 22;
4) one in the British Museum, illustrated in Jessica Harrison-Hall, Catalogue of Late Yuan and Ming Ceramics in the British Museum, London, 2001, cat. no. 1: 39; and
5) one formerly in the collection of Michel Ney (1769-1815), Field Marshal under Napoleon I, sold at Sotheby’s Hong Kong, 5 October 2016, lot 3636, for HK$29,880,000.

All these previously mentioned comparable examples are moulded with floral scrolls on the well, unlike the current lot moulded with a variety of fruits and leaves.