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Lot Essay
When the present dish was exhibited at the Gotoh Museum in 1967, its rarity was recorded in a hand written note at the time stating that the dating was "earlier than Chenghua period. The color is good. The shape of the fish is good. The shape of the body is very beautiful and typical early Ming style". There is also an additional entry to note that Edward T. Chow had dated this dish to the Zhengde period.
Two unmarked examples (both of similar size to the present dish) and dated to the Zhengde period are known: the first is in the Capital Museum, Beijing, illustrated in Shoudu Bowuguan Cangcixuan, Wenwu chubanshe, 1991, p. 126, no. 116; and the other was sold at Sotheby's London, 15 July 1980, lot 93. A dish of this pattern with four-character Zhengde reign mark in underglaze-blue on the underside, from the Howard Paget and Lodge Collections, is illustrated in E. E. Bluett, Ming and Ch'ing Porcelains, London, 1933, pl. XVII, no. 52, and illustrated again by J. Ayers, Chinese Ceramics, The Koger Collection, London, 1985, no. 74.
Two unmarked examples (both of similar size to the present dish) and dated to the Zhengde period are known: the first is in the Capital Museum, Beijing, illustrated in Shoudu Bowuguan Cangcixuan, Wenwu chubanshe, 1991, p. 126, no. 116; and the other was sold at Sotheby's London, 15 July 1980, lot 93. A dish of this pattern with four-character Zhengde reign mark in underglaze-blue on the underside, from the Howard Paget and Lodge Collections, is illustrated in E. E. Bluett, Ming and Ch'ing Porcelains, London, 1933, pl. XVII, no. 52, and illustrated again by J. Ayers, Chinese Ceramics, The Koger Collection, London, 1985, no. 74.