Provenance: London

The quality of the decoration, the Jiajing reign mark, the dark purplish blue of the glaze and the color of the porcelain support a Jiajing dating (1522-1566), advanced by the rare use of a grape motif generally identified with the Yongle period. Compare a Yongle blue and white grape dish, Christies Hong Kong, the Manno Sale, October 28, 2002, lot 527.

However, during the Wanli period (1573-1619) potters were able to reproduce the earlier Jiajing color of the porcelain biscuit, even though supplies of kaolin needed to do so were limited. Similarly it appears that quantities of Mohammedan blue had been obtained, making it possible to recreate the purplish color of the underglaze design; and there was no doubt that the skill of the artists could replicate the Jiajing nianhao. Compare a dish made in 1615 for Hung Kuang, grandson to the Wanli Emperor in the David Foundation. See Soame Jenyns, "Ming Pottery and Porcelain", Plate 110B, London, 1953. Also compare a mark and period Wanli bowl with a similar intensity in the underglaze blue, Christies New York, Septenber 21, 2003, lot 176 and those illustrated by Regina Krohl, "Chinese Porcelain in the Topkap Saray Museum, Istambul", London, 1986, vol. 1, p. 720, no. 1268. Thus, doubt as to the attribution of our offered bowl exists.

To compound matters, while recognizing that bowls of this quality might be copies of Jiajing pieces made during the Wanli reign, some authorities have concluded that those with a brown wash rim of the type offered here were not. Rather, they contend that these bowls were actually made during the Transition Period or are early Kangxi when former potters from the defunct imperial kilns established their own private ones to service the European trade in blue and white. Sir Harry Garner, "Oriental Blue & White", Praeger Publishers, London, 1970, p. 42, pl. 65B.