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Lot Essay
An identical dish formerly in the Mr and Mrs Alfred Clark is illustrated by Sir Harry Garner, Oriental Blue and White, 1973, pl.32A, and was sold in Hong Kong, 13 November 1990, lot 128.
It is very rare to find Xuande-marked dishes of this shape and decoration. Other Xuande 'Three Friends' dishes painted with figural scenes on the reverse are in the National Palace Museum, Taipei, but none of the scenes listed in the Gugong Ciqi Lu, pt.II, Ming Vol.I, pp.174-176 appear to correspond with that on the present dish.
Cf. related 'Three Friends' dishes, one included in the Illustrated Catalogue of Ming Dynasty Porcelain, pl.83, painted with a lady writing a poem on a banana leaf; another painted with a military official seated in a garden was included in the Museum's Special Exhibition of Hsuan-te Porcelain, 1980, Catalogue, no.60; and yet another Xuande-marked dish with ladies in a fenced garden included in the Museum's Special Exhibition of Cheng-hua Porcelain, 1976, Catalogue, no.134.
Compare also with the dish from the Sedgwick Collection painted with the 'Three Friends' but with a Chenghua reign mark illustrated by Garner, loc.cit., pl.32B together with the example from the Clark Collection.
It is very rare to find Xuande-marked dishes of this shape and decoration. Other Xuande 'Three Friends' dishes painted with figural scenes on the reverse are in the National Palace Museum, Taipei, but none of the scenes listed in the Gugong Ciqi Lu, pt.II, Ming Vol.I, pp.174-176 appear to correspond with that on the present dish.
Cf. related 'Three Friends' dishes, one included in the Illustrated Catalogue of Ming Dynasty Porcelain, pl.83, painted with a lady writing a poem on a banana leaf; another painted with a military official seated in a garden was included in the Museum's Special Exhibition of Hsuan-te Porcelain, 1980, Catalogue, no.60; and yet another Xuande-marked dish with ladies in a fenced garden included in the Museum's Special Exhibition of Cheng-hua Porcelain, 1976, Catalogue, no.134.
Compare also with the dish from the Sedgwick Collection painted with the 'Three Friends' but with a Chenghua reign mark illustrated by Garner, loc.cit., pl.32B together with the example from the Clark Collection.