supported on a slightly tapering foot, the rounded sides of the bowl gently evert at the rim. Apart from the foot rim, the vessel is covered with a sweet white glaze with some light yellowish-brown tinges at the rim where the glaze is thin. The vessel is very finely potted: thin, resonant and translucent. The six-character mark of the Hongzhi Emperor is written in underglaze blue within a double circle on the slightly convex base, where the glaze bears a characteristic bluish hue.

Formerly in the collections of R. F. A. Riesco, and Alfred and Ivy Clark.

Exhibited: “The Arts of the Ming Dynasty”, The Oriental Ceramic Society, 1957, no. 93, illustrated pl. 31.

See Valenstein, Ming Porcelains: A Retrospective, no. 27, p. 55, for an example in the collection of the City Art Museum of Saint Louis, where it is noted “The beauty of such a bowl lies in the quiet elegance of its form and the unctuous richness of the ivory-toned glaze.” The Saint Louis bowl is also illustrated in Lion-Goldschmidt, Ming Porcelain, pl. 94, p. 120, and described thus: “An exceedingly refined piece in the perfection of the profile and the proportions, and in the quality of the unctuous, deep ivory-white glaze.” Another example is illustrated in Harrison-Hall, Ming Ceramics in the British Museum, no. 7:1, p. 177. Other such bowls were formerly in the Knight and Herridge collections. A slightly smaller bowl (diameter 17 cm) is illustrated in Monochrome Porcelain: The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum, no. 104, p. 114. Note also the interesting comparison of a white-glazed Hongzhi bowl and a Kangxi copy with an apocryphal Hongzhi mark in Palace Museum, A Contrast between Genuine and Fake Porcelain and The Porcelain Specimens from Ancient Kiln Sites Collected in the Palace Museum (Pictorial Album), nos. 128 and 129, p. 147.

Three similar bowls, all with the dedicatory inscription of Shah Abbas, are in the Ardebil collection and one is illustrated in Pope, Chinese Porcelains from the Ardebil Shrine, no. 29.714, pl. 114, and see p. 146, where it is stated “In size, shape, and quality they are comparable to those mentioned in connection with the question of the so-called ‘Palace Bowls’.” See also p. 56, where another bowl is noted in the Chehel Sotun in Isfahan which carries the mark of Jahangir, Moghul emperor of India (1605–27), in addition to the dedicatory inscription of Shah Abbas.

R. F. A. (Jimmy) Riesco (1877–1964) collected a group of important Chinese ceramics between 1935 and the 1960s. Most were bequeathed to the Corporation of Croydon and are exhibited at Fairfield Halls, and some were given to the British Museum.