WANLI SIX-CHARACTER MARK IN UNDERGLAZE BLUE WITHIN A DOUBLE CIRCLE AND OF THE PERIOD (1573-1619)

Details

A RARE IRON-RED-DECORATED BLUE AND WHITE LOTUS PETAL DISH
WANLI SIX-CHARACTER MARK IN UNDERGLAZE BLUE WITHIN A DOUBLE CIRCLE AND OF THE PERIOD (1573-1619)
Molded as two rows of overlapping petals rising from a central medallion of a Tibetan/Sanskrit character bordered by bands of ruyi heads, the inner row of petals with trefoil motifs decorating the rounded tips and outlined in iron red, the outer lotus petals forming a barbed rim and alternately painted on the exterior with Tibetan/Sanskrit characters alternating with flower sprigs above a row of projecting petal tips rising from a narrow band of petals in pencilled line
8¼ in. (21 cm.) diam.

Lot Essay

A very similar Wanli-marked dish, also with the addition of iron-red, is illustrated in Chinese Porcelain, The S.C. Ko Tianminlou Collection, Part I, Hong Kong, 1987, no. 45. See, also, the example with iron-red details sold in these rooms, 1 June 1990, lot 190. Other examples of lotus-form bowls with Wanli marks, but in blue and white only, are illustrated by J. Ayers, The Baur Collection, vol. II, Geneva, 1969, no. A185; by Wang Qing-zheng, Underglaze Blue and Red, Shanghai, 1987, pl. 101; and by J. Harrison-Hall, Ming Ceramics in the British Museum, London, 2001, p. 313. Other recorded examples include one in Oriental Ceramics, The World's Great Collections, vol. 11, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Tokyo, 1982, no. 91. Another bowl of Wanli date, but unmarked, in the Institut Neerlandais, Paris, is illustrated by D. Lion-Goldschmidt, Ming Porcelain, New York, 1978, pls. 215 and 215a, where the author notes that these bowls were probably intended to hold offerings in Lamaist Buddhist temples.

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