LATE MING DYNASTY, CHONGZHEN PERIOD (1628-1644)

Only four other dishes bearing this unusual mark appear to be recorded. One of these dishes is in the Percival David Foundation and illustrated by Ming Wilson, Rare Marks on Chinese Ceramics, Percival David Foundation, London, 1988, pp. 30-1, no. 5, where the author notes that two other dishes with this mark are in the Palace Museum, Beijing, and one is in a private Swedish Collection. The fourth known example would appear to be the dish in the Shanghai Museum illustrated in Zhongguo taoci quanji - 21 - Jingdezhen caihui ciqi, Shanghai, 1981, no. 50. According to Ming Wilson, op. cit., p. 30, "Zhaofu (Zhao Mansion) referred to the Princedom of Zhao, one of the 24 principalities set up by the Hongwu Emperor during the early years of the dynasty." The author proposes that the owner of this group of dishes could have been either Zhu Cigan, who inherited the title Prince of Zhao in 1617, or his successor, Zhu Changyu, who was captured by Qing troops in 1644.