CHINE, DYNASTIE MING, MARQUE À SIX CARACTÈRES DANS UN RECTANGLE EN ÉMAUX CLOISONNÉS ET ÉPOQUE WANLI (1573-1619)

This dish belongs to a small and rare group of cloisonné pieces bearing prominent enamelled Wanli marks, Da ming Wanli nian zao within a rectangle and encircled by ruyi heads. Cloisonne enamel works of art with this mark can be found in museum collections and include a box and cover previously in the collection of Sir Percival and Lady David, and illustrated by H. Brinker and A. Lutz, Chinese Cloisonné: The Pierre Uldry Collection, Zurich, 1989, pl. 112; a dish from the National Palace Museum, Taibei, illustrated in Masterpieces of Chinese Enamel Ware in the National Palace Museum, 1971, pl. 9; an incense burner and a round box from the Palace Museum, Beijing, illustrated in Metal-bodied Enamel Ware - The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum, Hong Kong, 2002, cat. no. 50 and 52, pp. 52 and 54; and a dish from the Clague Collection, included in the Phoenix Art Museum exhibition Chinese Cloisonné: The Clague Collection, 1980, and illustrated in the Catalogue, pl. 16.
The decoration of this dish, distinct with its interlocking sprays of camelias against a pink ground in the well, can be compared to a similar circular dish, also from the Wanli period but with an incised mark within a large gilt-bronze rectangle, preserved in the Palace Museum, Beijing and illustrated in Metal-bodied Enamel Ware - The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum, Hong Kong, 2002, cat no. 48, p.50.