A RARE BLUE AND WHITE AND IRON-RED MOULDED 'LOTUS' DISH
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A RARE BLUE AND WHITE AND IRON-RED MOULDED 'LOTUS' DISH

WANLI UNDERGLAZE-BLUE SIX-CHARACTER MARK WITHIN DOUBLE CIRCLES AND OF THE PERIOD (1573-1619)

Details
A RARE BLUE AND WHITE AND IRON-RED MOULDED 'LOTUS' DISH
WANLI UNDERGLAZE-BLUE SIX-CHARACTER MARK WITHIN DOUBLE CIRCLES AND OF THE PERIOD (1573-1619)
Crisply moulded as an open lotus bloom supported on a low straight foot, with two rows of overlapping petals encircling a central medallion enclosing a Tibetan/Sanskrit character bordered by bands of ruyi heads, the inner row of petals painted with trefoil motifs on the rounded tips and each thinly outlined with iron-red enamel, the outer lotus petals forming a barbed rim, the exterior painted with Tibetan/Sanskrit characters alternating with flower sprays above a row of projecting petal tips rising from a further narrow band of overlapping petals
8 1/8 in. (21 cm.) diam.
Provenance
The Tsui Museum of Art, Hong Kong, no. MPN018.
Special notice
VAT rate of 5% is payable on hammer price and at 20% on the buyer's premium.

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Lot Essay

A similar dish with iron-red outlines is illustrated in Chinese Porcelain, The S.C.Ko Tianminlou Collection: Chinese Porcelain, Hong Kong Museum of Art, Hong Kong, 1987, no. 45.

Other examples of lotus-form bowls with Wanli marks are illustrated by J. Ayers, The Baur Collection, vol. II, Geneva, 1969, no. A185; by Wang Qing-zheng, Underglaze Blue and Red, Shanghai, 1987, pl. 101; by J. Harrison-Hall, Ming Ceramics in the British Museum, London, 2001, p. 313. Other recorded examples include one in Oriental Ceramics, The World's Great Collections, vol. 11, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Tokyo, 1982, no. 91. Another bowl of Wanli date, but unmarked, in the Institut Neerlandais, Paris, is illustrated by D. Lion-Goldschmidt, Ming Porcelain, New York, 1978, pls. 215 and 215a, where the author notes that these bowls were probably intended to hold offerings in Lamaist Buddhist temples.

Compare, also, the dish formerly in the Jingguantang Collection, sold in our New York Rooms, 20 March 1997, lot 81; and one sold in our Hong Kong Rooms, 27 May 2009, lot 1868.

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