ZHENGDE FOUR-CHARACTER MARK IN UNDERGLAZE BLUE WITHIN A DOUBLE CIRCLE AND OF THE PERIOD (1506-1521)

A similar blue and white zhadou bearing a four-character Zhengde mark is in the Palace Museum, Beijing, and illustrated in The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum - 35 - Blue and White Porcelain with Underglazed red (II), Hong Kong, 2000, p. 62, no. 57. Other similar examples bearing four-character Zhengde marks include the jar illustrated by R. Krahl, Chinese Ceramics from the Meiyintang Collection, vol. II, London, 1994, no. 686; the example in the Percival David Foundation, illustrated in The World's Great Collections, Oriental Ceramics, vol. 6, Tokyo, 1982, no. 124; the jar illustrated in Zhongguo lidai taoci xuanji (Selected Chinese Ceramics from Han to Qing), Taipei, 1990, pp. 231-2, no. 97; and the example from the collection of Mr. and Mrs. R. H. R. Palmer included in the O.C.S. exhibition, Chinese Blue and White Porcelain, 14th to 19th Centuries, London, 1953 - 1954, pl. 11, no. 131. A further Zhengde zhadou of this type from the Muwen Tang Collection was sold at Sotheby's, London, 12 November 2003, lot 152.