A RARE MING UNDERGLAZE-BROWN DECORATED DISH

ANOTHER PROPERTY

Details

A RARE MING UNDERGLAZE-BROWN DECORATED DISH
ZHENGDE MARK IN UNDERGLAZE BLUE WITHIN A DOUBLE CIRCLE AND OF THE PERIOD

Of shallow form with lipped rim, decorated in the interior with an hibiscus branch bearing two flowers and one bud, surrounded in the well by four detached sprays, comprising grape-vine, a be-ribboned lotus flower and pod and branches of fruiting pomegranate and persimmon, all between single line borders, the exterior with seven peony heads borne on a continuous leafy meander, the incised details of the decoration faintly visible beneath the mottled brown wash attractively thinning to an iridescent golden brown in areas, all reserved on an even milky white ground, repaired crack and chips--10 1/8 in. (25.7cm.) diam.

Lot Essay

Compare a nearly identical Zhengde-marked dish in the Kunstindustrimuseet, Copenhagen, illustrated by Andre Leth, Catalogue of Selected Objects of Chinese Art, Copenhagen, 1959, no. 116 and by Daisy Lion- Goldschimdt, Ming Porcelain, 1978, p. 117, no. 90. Another in The Musuem Yamato Bunkakan, Japan, is illustrated in Mayuyama Seventy Years, 1976, vol. I, p. 266, no. 798. Other Hongzhi and Zhengde examples decorated in this technique are in the National Palace Musuem, Taiwan, included in the Illustrated Catalogue of Ming Dynasty Porcelain, pls. 75 and 100. See also the Hongzhi- marked example of the same pattern in the Percival David Foundation of Chinese Art, illustrated in The World's Great Collections, Oriental Ceramics, Vol. 6, no. 136, and others illustrated in Ming Dai Taoci Daquan, Taipei, 1983, pp. 253,255,266 and 268

The earliest examples of this group in brown and white appear to be those bearing Xuande marks in a light brownish-yellow color, See for example the dish in the British Musuem, illustrated by Soame Jenyns, Ming Pottery and Porcelain, 1953, pl. 60B