YONGLE PERIOD (1402-1425)

The present charger belongs to a small group of massive Longquan dishes probably made by the imperial kilns at Chuzhou, Zhejiang province, which were left undeocrated to highlight the luminosity of the soft even glaze. Imperial patronage of this type of chargers can be supported by a similar reconstructed example found at the imperial kilns at Chuzhou, Longquan, illustrated in Faxian-Da Ming Chuzhou Longquan guanyao, Hangzhou, 2005, p. 254, pl. 6. Other similar chargers of smaller size include one (57.7 cm.) in the National Palace Museum, Taipei, illustrated in Green-Longquan Celadon of the Ming Dynasty, Taipei, 2009, pp. 90-1, pl. 41; another (56.3 cm.) sold at Christie’s Hong Kong, 29 May 2007, lot 1478; a third (56 cm.) included in the Capital Museum exhibition Wenwen yuse zhaociou, and illustrated in the Catalogue, Beijing, 2012, pl. 112; and a fourth (54.5 cm.) illustrated in Mayuyama, Seventy Years, vol. 1, Tokyo, 1976, p. 174, no. 515, and later sold at Sotheby’s Hong Kong, 7 April 2015, lot 3632. Compare also to larger examples of this type, such as the one (68.5 cm.) in the Idemitsu Museum of Arts, illustrated in Selected Masterpieces from the Idemitsu Collection, vol. 1, Tokyo, 1986-1891, no. 135; another (68 cm.) sold at Christie’s New York, 26 March 2010, lot 1346; a third (68 cm.) sold at Sotheby’s New York, 8 May 1981, lot 254; a fourth (64.9 cm.) sold at Christie’s New York, 17 September 2010, lot 1313; a fifth (63.8 cm.) sold at Christie’s Hong Kong, 26 September 1989, lot 555; and a sixth (63.5 cm.) sold at Sotheby’s Hong Kong, 5 October 2016, lot 3639.