The rim on the inside of the bowl is decorated with blossoming prunus reserved on a blue cracked-ice background. The design evokes the beautiful blossom of the plum whilst it is still winter - the cracking ice being the first signs of spring. The inside medallion depicts a sage within a landscape. Diameter 16 cm.
The Avalon Collection. This collection, which in the main focuses on the Interregnum and Kangxi periods
has been both carefully and sensitively formed over the last twenty-five years. The collector, a member of the English Oriental Ceramic Society, has assembled the collection with an eye for provenance whilst purchasing from old European collections, well-established antique dealers and at auction. Academically, the pieces have been well researched both in terms of their symbolism and narrative themes. In many instances the imagery on the pieces has been referenced to episodes in the romantic and historic novels of Chinese mythology, which were used extensively in the decoration of seventeenth century Chinese porcelain.