LATE MING DYNASTY, LATE 16TH-EARLY 17TH CENTURY

A very similar dish, identified as 'Swatow' ware (35.5 cm. diam.), is illustrated by R. Krahl and J. Ayers in Chinese Ceramics in the Topkapi Saray Museum, Istanbul, vol. II, London, 1986, p. 895, and col. pl. p. 480, no. 1939, where the inscriptions are identified as Arabic quoting the Koran, and the poem is also translated. See, also, a related dish of comparable size (36.5 cm. diam.) illustrated in Chinese Ceramics in the Idemitsu Collection, Japan, 1987, p. 881.