Lot Essay
A dish of similar size and design in the National Palace Museum, Taipei, is illustrated in Porcelain of the National Palace Museum - Enamelled Ware of the Ming Dynasty, Book III, Cafa Company, Hong Kong, 1966, pp. 64-5, pls. 19a-b. For further examples of dishes with similar colour palette and decorated with dragons, see Ding Xujun, Ming qing you shang cai hui ci qi, Shanghai, 2004, no. 88., and another in the National Museum in China illustrated in Shanhai guji chu ban she, Studies of the Collections of the National Museum of China, Shanghai, 2007, no.103. Compare with another dish of the same design in the Percival David Foundation Collection, illustrated in Masterpieces of Chinese Ceramics from the Percival David Collection, Yomiuri Shimbun, Osaka, 1998, p. 95, no. 64. Another illustrated example of the same design can also be found in Pan Jialai, Zhongguo chuan tong ci qi, Beijing, 2006, p.57. See also the single dish sold in our Hong Kong rooms, 1 December 2010, lot 3120; and the pair of dishes sold in these rooms, 11 June 1990, lot 199.
The same distinctive palette can be seen on a Wanli-marked 'dragon' jar sold in our Hong Kong rooms, 26 April 2004, lot 1000; and also on an altar set in the British Museum illustrated by Jessica Harrison-Hall, Ming Ceramics in the British Museum, London, 2001, p. 341, nos. 11:170, 11:171 and 11:172.
The same distinctive palette can be seen on a Wanli-marked 'dragon' jar sold in our Hong Kong rooms, 26 April 2004, lot 1000; and also on an altar set in the British Museum illustrated by Jessica Harrison-Hall, Ming Ceramics in the British Museum, London, 2001, p. 341, nos. 11:170, 11:171 and 11:172.