A CHINESE LONGQUAN CELADON `FIGURATIVE` BOWL Ming Dynasty The heavily-potted bowl with deep rounded sides rising from a cylindrical foot, the interior impressed with a medallion enclosing the character gao , surrounded by figures and accompanying inscriptions, all below a key fret band, the exterior with loose leafy sprays beneath a key fret band, the bowl decorated in an olive-green glaze, 15.3cm diameter Provenance : English private collection formed around 1950s 明 龍泉青釉人物盌 來源： 英國私人收藏。 c.f. This bowl depicts Confucius, the poet Li Bai, the beauty Wang Zhaojun, and two officials. A comparable bowl is illustrated by Regina Krahl in ‘Yuegutang, A Collection of Chinese Ceramics’, Berlin, 2000, p.280. Krahl dates this bowl to the early Ming dynasty, circa 14 th /15 th century, and states that a similar bowl was excavated from a tomb at Sunqiao, Jingshan county, Hubei province, dated to 1502. Two bowls of this type are also illustrated by Jessica Harrison-Hall in ‘Catalogue of Late Yuan and Ming Ceramics in the British Museum’, London, 2001, pp. 482-83, nos. 16:52 and 16:53.