A MING YELLOW-GROUND BLUE AND WHITE DISH

Details

A MING YELLOW-GROUND BLUE AND WHITE DISH
ZHENGDE SIX-CHARACTER MARK IN UNDERGLAZE BLUE WITHIN A DOUBLE CIRCLE AND OF THE PERIOD

The shallow, rounded sides rising from a tapered ring foot to a slightly everted rim, painted in washy, gradated tones of underglaze blue with a gardenia branch bearing two blossoms and a bud, surrounded by a spray of ribbon-tied lotus stems and three fruit-laden sprigs of peach, pomegranate and grape in the well, with a continuous frieze of peony scroll encircling the exterior, all reserved on a lemon-yellow ground within double-line borders, short hair crack, some abrasion--9 7/8in. (25cm.) diam., box

Exhibited

Baltimore, The Baltimore Museum of Art, Born of Earth and Fire, Chinese Ceramics from the Scheinman Collection, September 9-November 8, 1992, no. 81

Further details

See illustrations of two views

Lot Essay

Compare other similarly decorated dishes of this date and unusual, large size, illustrated by Liu, Ming Official Wares, A Survey of Chinese Ceramics, vol. 4, Taiwan, 1991 p. 173; and by Sato, Chinese Ceramics, fig. 251

Similar dishes (20 cm.) of this design with both six and four-character marks are more prevalent; one from the Palmer Collection is illustrated by Jenyns, Ming Pottery and Porcelain, London, 1953, pl. 57A (ii); one included in the exhibition, Chinese Ceramics, The S.C. Ko Tianminlou Collection, Hong Kong Museum of Art, 1987, vol. I, pl. 67; one included in the Illustrated Catalogue of Ming Dynasty Porcelain in the National Palace Museum, Taiwan, pl. 99; and one in the Fogg Art Museum included in the exhibition, Ming Porcelains, China Institute, New York, 1970, Catalogue, no. 36, where Valenstein suggests that both the flower sprig in the center and repeated in a freize on the reverse may represent gardenias