Yongle was the irreconcilable enemy of the Yuan and the Mongols, whom he circumvented by a communication effort toward all other foreigners. He used the outstanding productions from Jingdezhen for diplomatic gifts.
On March 18 in New York, Sotheby's sells a Ming dish estimated $ 2.5M, lot 264. With no imperial mark, it is however a masterpiece of the blue and white porcelain with its large diameter, 43 cm, the elegance of its waved rim and its figurative theme. It was probably made around 1420, shortly before the end of the Yongle period.
Its naturalistic central theme of grapes on foliated branches of vine, along with a circular frieze of various flowers with their leaves, matched the Muslim taste and anticipates by one century the Iznik dishes. This dish belonged later to a Safavid princess and afterward to Shah Jahan, the fifth emperor of the Mughal dynasty in North India.
It was exhibited in 2000 at the Brooklyn Museum of Art as a major piece from the Cabinet of wonders of the Guennol collection.
I invite you to play the video shared by Sotheby's :