Bowl

The striking contrast of lemon yellow and the cobalt -blue, both strong and bright, was an experiment of the Ming period (Palace Mus. 1989: 103). Two popular flowers, the peony and lotus, symbolic of prosperity, alternate in four blue rounded panels against a lemon yellow ground with incised lotus scrolls on the exterior. In the panels the flowers were painted in opaque shades of pink amid dark and light green leaves. Between the panels are three pinkish lotus sprigs with light blue leaves. The mark on the base reads Kangxi yuzhi ("produced by the imperial command of the Kangxi").