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

The present bowl is of an unusually large size and appears to be a very rare example of Wanli period bowls made in reverence to earlier Chenghua period ceramics decorated in the doucai technique. Compare to four published Wanli-marked examples of this same size and design. The first bowl is in the collection the National Palace Museum, illustrated in Enamelled Ware of the Ming Dynasty, Book III, CAFA, 1966, pls. 12a-b. The second bowl is in the Tokyo National Museum Collection, illustrated in Seikai Toji Zenshu, Ming Dynasty, vol. 14, Shokakukan, 1976, p.111; and the third from the Grandidier Collection and now in the Musée Guimet, is illustrated in The Word's Great Collections, Oriental Ceramics, vol. 7, Kodansha series, 1981, no. 88. The fourth bowl is illustrated by von L. Reidemeister, Ming-Porzellane in Schwedischen Sammlungen, Berlin und Leipzig, 1935, pl. 48.

A Chenghua period bowl from which the decorative style of the present Wanli bowl was inspired, was excavated from the imperial kilns and was included in the exhibition, A Legacy of Chenghua, Hong Kong, 1993, and illustrated in the Catalogue, p. 333, C122. Compare also to an angular-sided dish similarly enamelled to depict fruiting branches, illustrated ibid., Hong Kong, 1993, p. 319, no. C115. The decorative theme continued into the Qing dynasty with a subtle interpretation of the Ming theme as exemplified by the rare pair of Kangxi doucai bowls offered in the same sale, lot 2258.