A blue and white bowl, seal mark and period of Qianlong (1736-95).
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With rounded sides, painted on the exterior with the ba jixiang, each balanced on a lotus flower borne on undulation leafy stems, all above a band of blue-ground lappets, the tall foot encircled by a wave border, the interior with a roundel enclosing a stylised double varja with a further wave border at the rim. Diameter 25,6 cm.
Wear to rim.
Provenance
The Collection of Gustaf Wallenberg (1863-1939). The collection was acquired between 1906 and 1918 when Wallenberg was the Swedish Envoyé in Tokyo, from 1907 he was also accredited for Beijing.
Literature
For the Ming inspiration of the design compare two bowls in the National Palace Museum, Taiwan, one with a Jiajing mark, published in Minji Meihin Zuroko, Vol III, 1978, pl 110, and another with Xuande mark illustrated in Porcelain of the National Palace Museum. Blue and white ware of the Ming Dynasty, book II, pt 2, pl. 45.
More information
The design of this bowl is based on that found on a few Xuande marked bowls painted around the exterior with the bajixiang amidst scrolling lotus.