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Lot Essay
This exceptionally beautiful Longquan celadon dish is skillfully potted, exquisitely decorated and has a glaze of particularly fine color. Several dishes of this kind are known in important collections around the world, but the Falk dish is of particular interest since aspects of its design bear comparison with porcelains excavated from the Hongwu (1368-98) stratum at the Jingdezhen kilns in Jiangxi province. One of the features seen on the Falk dish and on Hongwu porcelains from Jingdezhen is that the bracket lobing in the well of the dish is very distinct and highly undulating, in contrast to the slightly reduced lobing seen in the 15th century. A good comparison for the Falk dish may be made with a dish with underglaze cobalt blue decoration excavated from the Hongwu stratum at Zhushan, Jingdezhen in 1994, illustrated in Imperial Hongwu and Yongle Porcelain excavated at Jingdezhen, Chang Foundation, Taipei, 1996, pp. 130-1, no. 33.
Another feature seen on both the Falk celadon dish and the Jingdezhen Hongwu dish is the complex, formal style of the floral sprays painted or incised in each bracket of the well. These contrast markedly with the more naturalistic sprays associated with the early 15th century, which may be seen on underglaze blue-decorated dishes as well as large bracket-lobed Longquan celadon dishes like that in the Seikado Bunko Art Museum, illustrated in Special Exhibition - Jixiang - Auspicious Motifs in Chinese Art, Tokyo National Museum, 1998, p. 124, no. 100. The excavations at Jingdezhen have also made clear that the depiction of trees and shrubs growing from a coherent ground plane was a feature of ceramic decoration in the Hongwu reign, as can be seen from the Jingdezhen dish mentioned above.
There are several fine celadon bracket-lobed dishes in the collection of the Topkapi Saray, illustrated by J. Ayers and R. Krahl in Chinese Ceramics in the Topkapi Saray Museum Istanbul, vol. I, London, 1986, pp. 228, 300-301, nos. 233-39, which are given a date of "c. 1400", and no. 243, which is given a date of "early 15th century". The color illustration of no. 239 on page 228 is of particular interest since this is of almost the same size as the Falk dish, shares its deep lobing in the well, its formal sprays in the well lobes, and in addition has a fungus scroll around the flattened rim. Lingzhi fungus scrolls were a popular motif on the rims of Hongwu blue and white dishes, as can be seen from those excavated at Jingdezhen, for example the bracket-lobed dish illustrated in Imperial Hongwu and Yongle Porcelain excavated at Jingdezhen, op. cit., pp. 110-11, no. 23.
It seems likely that the decoration of fine celadon wares, such as the Falk dish, would have been closely linked to that of the official kilns at Jingdezhen, and in view of the similarities noted between the Falk dish and excavated Hongwu porcelains, it seems possible that this dish may date to the late 14th century.
Another feature seen on both the Falk celadon dish and the Jingdezhen Hongwu dish is the complex, formal style of the floral sprays painted or incised in each bracket of the well. These contrast markedly with the more naturalistic sprays associated with the early 15th century, which may be seen on underglaze blue-decorated dishes as well as large bracket-lobed Longquan celadon dishes like that in the Seikado Bunko Art Museum, illustrated in Special Exhibition - Jixiang - Auspicious Motifs in Chinese Art, Tokyo National Museum, 1998, p. 124, no. 100. The excavations at Jingdezhen have also made clear that the depiction of trees and shrubs growing from a coherent ground plane was a feature of ceramic decoration in the Hongwu reign, as can be seen from the Jingdezhen dish mentioned above.
There are several fine celadon bracket-lobed dishes in the collection of the Topkapi Saray, illustrated by J. Ayers and R. Krahl in Chinese Ceramics in the Topkapi Saray Museum Istanbul, vol. I, London, 1986, pp. 228, 300-301, nos. 233-39, which are given a date of "c. 1400", and no. 243, which is given a date of "early 15th century". The color illustration of no. 239 on page 228 is of particular interest since this is of almost the same size as the Falk dish, shares its deep lobing in the well, its formal sprays in the well lobes, and in addition has a fungus scroll around the flattened rim. Lingzhi fungus scrolls were a popular motif on the rims of Hongwu blue and white dishes, as can be seen from those excavated at Jingdezhen, for example the bracket-lobed dish illustrated in Imperial Hongwu and Yongle Porcelain excavated at Jingdezhen, op. cit., pp. 110-11, no. 23.
It seems likely that the decoration of fine celadon wares, such as the Falk dish, would have been closely linked to that of the official kilns at Jingdezhen, and in view of the similarities noted between the Falk dish and excavated Hongwu porcelains, it seems possible that this dish may date to the late 14th century.