An Early Ming Celadon Bowl, Longquan Kilns, Late 14th or Early 15th Century from the Collection of Nicholas Thompson (See Provenance). The interior of this Ningyo ude celadon bowl is moulded with figures with explanatory inscriptions and a 'Greek-Key' type border above, the well is impressed with auspicious emblems within a cross. The border design is repeated on the exterior. The bowl is covered in a very thick rich green glaze and the detail is clear. There is a man on horseback, probably a general accompanied with an inscription in a tablet and his attendant in front. The next panel (on the right) shows an inscribed screen with a tripod table, the object on the table is perhaps an incense burner. The next panel has a musician playing a Chinese lute called a Pipa (琵琶) and a dancer, the next panel is a panel, rather like a room divide leading onto the next panel of a general or possibly other important person, flanked by two diminutive attendants with inscribed tablets above their outstretched arms. A similar Ming celadon bowl was discovered in the ruins of Saya Castle, Komatsu-Shi, Ishikawa prefecture, Japan, built in the sixteenth century, and now in the Tokyo National Museum. Such bowls are called Ningyo ude bowls in Japan because of their figural decoration. See below for more information about this group of early Ming celadon bowls and examples of kiln wasters and for an example we sold previously.

Ming Celadon Bowls with a Narrative Story :

There was a distinct group of Ming celadon bowls produced at the Longquan kilns that are thickly potted and show figures with explanatory inscriptions. Several different designs were produced in varying qualities, the size and layout are similar, maybe four or five designs were produced. They are characterised by their thickly potted rounded form and moulded designs of figures with explanatory inscriptions to the interior, they usually have a single character in the well and the border is of a key-fret band, so-called Greek-Key. A Ming bowl of this type is illustrated in : Yuegutang, A Collection of Chinese Ceramics in Berlin (Regina Krahl, G+H Verlag, Berlin, 2000) pages 280 and 280. Regina Krahl dates this bowl to the early Ming dynasty, 14th or 15th century. She states that a similar bowl was excavated from a tomb at Sunqiao, Jingshan county, Hubei province, dated to the 15th year of the Hongzhi period (1502). Regina's description of the Ming bowl she is describing is worth quoting in full "The rounded bowl has a straight, heavy foot. The inside is decorated with moulded figure scenes and explanatory cartouches, showing a military and a civil official playing a board game under a star constellation, and the inscription zhenzi po qizhan (`the gods fighting over a chess game`) ; a scholar seated at a desk with a book and an inkstone, and the inscription Li Bo guan...juan (`Li Bo gazing at ... book`) ; a man with an official's cap standing beside a board depicting a reclining qilin (a mythical animal), and inscribed jin yu (gold and jade) ; a lady seated at a table working on a piece of cloth, and with the inscription Zhoa Jun yi yi ca (`Lady Zhoa improves her talents`) : and a man playing a qin zither and the inscription Kongzi yi Yan Hui (`Confucius remembers Yan Hui`). The center is impressed with the character gao (noble... the character on the present example is different), the outside is incised with a flower scroll and the rim with a key-fret border both inside and out. The piece is covered with an olive-green glaze except for a ring on the base which has fired brick-red.