Chinese cloisonne dish, Ming dynasty,Jingtai marks, Imperial mark and period
8.5 inches wide
A rare and important Chinese work of art, that is as fine and impressive as the similar examples in museums from NY and Shanghai.

This dish weighs 900 grams (approx.2 pounds).



Davids notes: While the attribution of Imperial is difficult in the world of cloisonne, especially the Ming Dynasty era, where the marking system for cloisonne is relatively unknown as there are very few surviving examples, especially from the 15th century, there is a lot more to the argument that this work is Imperial, and it would be nearly impossible to prove that this was not made for one of the Ming Emperors. Small clues lead you to conclude the latter, as you examine the quality, execution and details of this piece. If you notice the weight of the piece, 900 grams, the sheer heaviness of the piece immediately informs that this is not a typical work for even a court official at the time. Remember there was no middle class in Ming Dynasty China, and works like this would never have been made for the lower classes. Second, even during a time when cloisonne workmanship excelled, this is an exceptional piece in comparison to the other works from the same period. The lotus flower petals each have a different color, as opposed to the same color for the entire lotus flower that you see on inferior works and poor examples from the 15th and 16th century. The wall thickness for the different cells of each enameled area in the work, varies from section to section, in an orderly design and consistent to each section, as opposed to the same wall thickness overall in inferior examples from the 15th and 16th century. The color of yellow, since the Qin Dynasty(230 B.C),decreed that costumes containing the color yellow were reserved for the Emperor. Although this is not a robe, the use of yellow enamel in the eight lotus flowers would be unthinkable if not for an Imperial work in the 15th century. Finally the overall balance, execution and 'perfection' of the work, it has a magnificent quality that puts questions of authenticity aside, since rarely are forgeries or copies made with extraordinary passion and quality, since the motive, the acquisition of monetary gain, suggests that the need to produce volume over quality,reduces the excellence of the execution of the production details.For a nearly identical example of this type of work, see the IMPORTANT AND EXTREMELY RARE IMPERIAL MING ENAMEL BRACKET LOBED BOX AND COVER JINGTAI INCISED SIX CHARACTER MARK AND OF THE PERIOD(1450-1456)(Christies Oct 27 2002) sold 9,974,100 Hong Kong dollars.

Ming Dynasty cloisonne work is extremely rare, only a few examples survived. It is believed that the method of cloisonne was brought to China from the Middle East, and first appeared during the Yuan Dynasty. The earliest known example of the craft is a piece from 1430.It is during the Jingtai dynasty, that lasted only 8 years, that cloisonne reached artistic heights unseen before in China. One of the best examples, and fairly similar to the dish we are auctioning, is the Foliated Dish with Floral Scrolls, Ming Dynasty, Cloisonne dish at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in NY(Accession humber Purchase 1993.338,Gift of Florence and Herbert Irving 1993).It is slightly smaller(6 inches wide) but has the same turquoise blues, reds and yellow colors and the vine work that was a carry over from the Islamic designs that were influential to the East. The work we are offering is 8.5 inches wide and is in remarkable condition. There is some very tiny gold paint touch up to the areas where the gilding has worn off on the bronze, but the overall condition can be described as extraordinary. The Jingtai marks on the back, according to Claudia Brown in her brilliant essay on a Christies vase that was auctioned in 2014,are almost impossible to verify, since very little is known about how the Jingtai cloisonne workers in the late 15th century marked their wares, but the engraving on the back of the dish we are offering is extremely fine, hand chased and perfectly centered.

Jingtai Reign
(Source: Wiki)The Jingtai ,Emperor(21 September 1428 - 14 March 1457), born Zhu Qiyu, was the seventh Emperor of the Ming dynasty, reigned from 1449 to 1457. The second son of the Xuande Emperor, he was selected in 1449 to succeed his elder brother Emperor Yingzong (then reigned as "Zhengtong Emperor"), when the latter was captured by Mongols following the Tumu Crisis. He reigned for 8 years before being removed from the throne by his elder brother Emperor Yingzong (then reigned as "Tianshun Emperor"). The Jingtai Emperor's era name, "Jingtai", means "Exalted View". He was one of Ming emperors to not be buried in neither Ming tombs in Beijing nor Ming Xiaoling in Nanjing.The future Jingtai Emperor was born on September 21, 1428 with the name Zhu Qiyu to Emperor Yingzong and Empress Hu (1402–1443). On August 3, 1449, he was appointed regent by his older half-brother the Zhengtong Emperor.

Zhu Qiyu would ascend the throne in 1449 after his older brother the Zhengtong Emperor was defeated and taken prisoner by the Oirat Mongols of Esen Khan.

During his reign, aided by the able minister Yu Qian, Jingtai paid particular attention to matters affecting his country. He repaired the Grand Canal as well as the system of dykes along the Yellow River. As a result of his administration, the economy prospered and the dynasty was further strengthened.

In 1452, he demoted his first wife Empress Wang (Empress Xiaoyuanjing, 1427–1507) since she had only had two daughters, and not a son. He instead promoted his Consort Hang to become Empress Hang (Empress Suxiao), but her five-year-old son, Zhu Jianji, died in 1453 under suspicious circumstances, and she bore no other children.

The Zhengtong Emperor was released in 1450 after the Mongols learned that the Ming government had installed Zhu Qiyu as the new emperor. After that, Jingtai continued to rule as emperor while his brother was granted the title of Retired Emperor and lived in obscurity.

Jingtai reigned for eight years. Empress Hang died in 1456, and Jingtai himself became ill. With his death imminent in 1457, he still refused to name an heir, particularly because his own son had died mysteriously in 1453 - perhaps poisoned. Jingtai's predecessor, his brother the sidelined Zhengtong Emperor, saw an opportunity to regain the throne and through a military coup overthrew the ailing Jingtai. Zhengtong then adopted a new era name, "Tianshun", and was henceforth known as the Tianshun Emperor. Jingtai was demoted by his brother to his previous title, Prince of Cheng, and placed under house arrest in Xiyuan (西苑). He died a month later, with some sources hinting that he was murdered by eunuchs on the order of the Tianshun Emperor.

After the Jingtai Emperor's death, the Tianshun Emperor denied his brother's rightful honor to be buried at the Ming Dynasty Tombs (together with his predecessors) located north of Beijing. He was instead buried well away from that locale in the hills west of Beijing and was buried as a prince rather than an emperor. His posthumous name was also shortened to five characters, instead of the normal seventeen, to reflect his demoted status.

Jingtai Cloisonne
Dr.Claudia Brown, Professor of Art History at Arizona State University Helberger Institute of Art and Design wrote a brilliant essay for Christies, in 2014 for a superb Ming bowl. I reprint this essay here since it deals with the Jingtai period cloisonne marks. The Christies bowl sold for 2,629,000 USD.

(From the 2014 Christies catalog): This exquisite bowl is one of a select group of fourteenth- to sixteenth-century cloisonné enamels prized by the Qing court in the eighteenth century. Master craftsmen working for Emperors Kangxi, Yongzheng, and Qianlong embellished precious Yuan and early- and mid-Ming cloisonné vessels with newly prepared metal fittings and bases. This practice identified such works as fine and noble works of art and presented them in an enhanced form. The new bases added to these pieces typically bear the Ming-dynasty reign mark of Jingtai (1450-1457). In this instance, the craftsmen, likely from the Palace Workshops, or Zaobanchu, also added two small handles - one at either side of the bowl - each handle in the form of a zoomorphic head suggesting a fantastic feline creature with upturned snout and curling mane. The most celebrated period for Chinese cloisonné is the Jingtai reign, just as Xuande (1426-1435) is associated with bronzes and blue-and-white porcelain and Chenghua (1465-1487) is prized for its overglaze enameled porcelains, particularly its doucai enameled wares. In fact, a seventeenth-century text praises "the bronze wares of the Xuande era, porcelain wares of the Chenghua era, lacquer wares of the Yongle era, and Jingtai cloisonné" (Bèatrice Quette, p. 155). Even so, although fine enamels most assuredly were produced during the fifteenth century, scholars remain divided on the question of whether any surviving work with the Jingtai mark actually dates from that reign period. Few works can be reliably attributed to the mid-fifteenth century, and the legendary superiority of the cloisonné of the Jingtai reign remains unconfirmed. Jingtai marks on works in the Palace Museum, Beijing, show great variation in style (Yang Boda, "Jingtai falang") and are presumed to date to the Kangxi, Yongzheng and Qianlong reigns, which leaves the appearance of an original Jingtai mark an open, and probably insoluble, enigma. The main motif on the exterior of this bowl is a makara striding above rolling, white-capped waves. Sometimes referred to in Chinese sources as a kui dragon, the makara is a dragon-like creature with a split and foliated tail and a floral scroll issuing from its mouth; it originated in India and reached China via Nepal and Tibet during the Yuan period. Its appearance on early- and mid-Ming cloisonné is well documented. It also appears on Chenghua-period porcelains with doucai decoration, that is, porcelains with decoration painted in underglaze cobalt blue and overglaze polychrome enamels, such as the well-published wine cup in the Mr. and Mrs. John D. Rockefeller 3rd Collection (The Asia Society, Handbook of the Mr. and Mrs. John D. Rockefeller 3rd Collection (New York: The Asia Society), 1981, p.78, 1979.175). The colors on this cloisonné vessel range from purple - often termed "aubergine" in discussions of Ming-dynasty decorative arts - to the more commonly encountered colors of green, yellow, turquoise, dark blue, white, and red. These largely opaque enamels are joined by translucent ones in hues of light green, light yellow, and amethyst. The translucent hues were achieved by adding clear, colorless enamel to the opaque enamels of related color - that is, by adding clear enamel to opaque purple to achieve translucent amethyst, for example. The appearance of aubergine and amethyst marks another parallel to fifteenth- and early-sixteenth-century ceramics, as both doucai porcelains and fahua stonewares exhibit these colors. The interior of this bowl boasts another auspicious creature, a winged dragon, or yinglong, also depicted above white-capped waves. The underside of this yinglong dragon shows the mid-Ming technique of mixing enamel colors within the cloisons, or cells. Red enamel frit is added to a matrix of white enamel, for example, to make a composite "Ming pink." The technique is used on the exterior makara motif as well, notably on the inside of the creature's open mouth. In the waves below the dragon, enamels of different shades of green as well as differing degrees of translucency are applied within each of the cells. The resulting effect suggests the abundance and turbulent character of the waves. The walls of the interior feature a scrolling floral pattern with multi-colored flowers and turquoise leaves set against a ground of white enamel. The exterior of the vessel has a deep-blue ground, rather than the lighter, turquoise blue more typically seen in Chinese cloisonné enamels. While the blue of the best fifteenth-century pieces is deservedly prized, there is no concrete evidence to link it to the obscure Jingtai reign, or even to the years around 1450. However, the tradition of a "Jingtai blue" no doubt has an historical basis, even if that basis remains unclear to us today. Indeed, Jingtai lan (literally, "blue of the Jingtai era") is common usage for cloisonné in Chinese today. In terminology, a shift from falang, the word previously used to designate cloisonné enamel, to Jingtai lan appears to have taken place in the early Qing period (Helmut Brinker and Albert Lutz, p. 94; Bèatrice Quette, p. 24). The fine quality of this late-fifteenth to early-sixteenth century bowl is matched by the workmanship of its eighteenth-century embellishments. Those prized additions - a chiseled Jingtai mark with a bold calligraphic flourish to the characters, and the two small handles reminiscent of the mythological animals that enliven ancient bronzes - bespeak the sophistication of the officials and craftsmen of the Qing court. They were careful to preserve the integrity of the admired early enameled vessel while updating it with elegant embellishments in contemporaneous style.

Overall wear consistent with age, no visible repairs or restoration.From a private collection in NYC, not on the second hand market for the last 60 years.Provenance:David Killen Gallery often works with larger auction houses, clearing out estates, homes and apartments after the larger auction houses remove what they want.There is another gentleman in NYC, who for 50 years has been trusted by larger auction houses to clear out apartments.That other gentleman came to my auction house, and said he was referred by one of the larger auction houses to an estate in NYC at 96th street and Fifth Avenue, an American man had passed away at age 98.The cloisonne dish was found in the apt and the gentleman came to our auction house to sell it.This is not unusual.We often find valuable items that the larger auction houses overlook,, because they were under the bed, in a closet, etc.It was probably purchased on a trip to China, after the second World War, and brought back to the United States.The same family and estate had the large dragon bowl with a large chip that is in this same sale(lot 98).