A rare and large blue and white 'peony' charger, Ming dynasty, Yongle period | 明永樂　青花牡丹紋大盤

A French private collection, early 1980s.

Yongle blue and white chargers are very rare, and surviving examples differ in motif combinations, proportions, and rim profiles. Particularly few examples are known with a composition so closely matching the present piece: see an example from the Ataka Collection, now in the Museum of Oriental Ceramics, Osaka, included in Ataka Collection: Exhibition of Famous Chinese Ceramics, Tokyo, 1979, cat. no. 61; another, catalogued as Xuande period, is preserved in the Shanghai Museum and published in Underglaze Blue & Red, Hong Kong, 1987, pl. 62. 

Compare also related examples of this type, including one in the Matsuoka Museum of Art, Tokyo, decorated with a continuous floral scroll on the cavetto and detached sprigs around the rim; and a barbed-rim example with detached sprays on a fluted cavetto in the Taipei Palace Museum, acc. no. guci-6630. Similar dishes also made their way to the Ottoman court, preserved in the Topkapi Saray Museum, Istanbul; two of these bear a similar motif, with branches swirling around the dish and either detached or continuous floral scrolls on the cavetto, published in Regina Krahl, Chinese Ceramics in the Topkapi Saray Museum, vol. 2, Istanbul, London, 1986, nos 597 and 598.

來源

法國私人收藏，1980年代初

此永樂青花盤尺度宏碩，牡丹繁英疊蘂，舒卷有致，花果描繪細膩，青花發色濃豔，為明初青花瓷之上乘佳作。此類盤之紋飾與口沿造型變化頗多，而具此紋樣與外形者，傳世例殊為罕見。大阪市立東洋陶磁美術館藏一例，為安宅舊藏，載於《安宅コレクション中國名陶展》，東京，1979年，編號61。上海博物館亦藏一例，定代宣德，見《青花釉裏紅》，香港，1987年，圖版62。

另可參考數件相關盤例，雖同繪洛陽花影，然紋飾各具姿態。東京松岡美術館藏一例，盤壁飾纏枝花卉，折沿點綴折枝小花。台北故宮博物院亦藏一菱口大盤，器壁分十六瓣，館藏編號：故瓷6630。相類之作亦遠播西亞，入藏鄂圖曼宮廷，其中兩盤今貯於伊斯坦堡托普卡匹皇宮博物館，盤心不作雙株同根之牡丹，而以一株花王迴旋盤心，內壁或飾纏枝，或繪折枝，參見康蕊君，《Chinese Ceramics in the Topkapi Saray Museum, Istanbul》，卷2，倫敦，1986年，編號597及598。