Four Ming Dynasty 15th-16th Cent Blue & White Porcelain Bowls Shipwreck Recovery For Sale

East Asia, China, Ming Dynasty, ca. 15th to 16th century CE. A quartet of blue-and-white bowls that spent several centuries on the ocean floor and arrived at the surface still decent company. Each rests on a low foot ring and flares to a rounded rim, the shared grammar of Ming export ware produced in quantity for the maritime trade networks that connected southern Chinese kilns to the courts and markets of Southeast Asia, the Persian Gulf, and beyond. The decoration varies across the four: one carries a precise lotus scroll band around the exterior, its brushwork controlled and confident; another bears loose, gestural cloud or floral motifs in a watery cobalt that bleeds softly into the glaze; a third is enlivened by bold cursive botanical painting; and the fourth displays low-relief vegetal ornament beneath a milky white glaze, the modeling assertive enough to survive long submersion. Size of largest: 6.3\" D x 2.5\" H (16.0 cm D x 6.3 cm H)

Two of the bowls retain heavy marine encrustation on their exteriors, the accumulated record of centuries on a seabed, while the unglazed or sand-abraded rims on several examples are consistent with stack-firing, the standard kiln practice for high-volume cargo production. One interior medallion preserves what appears to be a painted character or abbreviated mark. Taken together, the group is a small but readable fragment of the vast ceramic trade that made Ming porcelain the common currency of the early modern world.

Item # 202835

• Provenance: Comes with Certificate of Authenticity-private West Covina, California, USA collection
• Dimensions: Size: 6.3\" Diam x 2.5\" H (16.0 cm Diam x 6.4 cm H)
• Medium: Terracotta
• Circa: Ca. 1400–1600 CE