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

Wanli bowls of this shape and pattern are very rare and are found with different colours. A small number of them combines the use of underglaze blue and overglaze enamels, as in the case of the present bowl, and on another bowl decorated in underglaze blue with green and black enamels in the Percival David Foundation, illustrated in Oriental Ceramics, vol. 6, fig. 179. Others from this group are found with only overglaze enamels, such as a yellow-enamelled iron-red decorated bowl in the Tokyo National Museum, see collection number: TG-2539, and another sold at Sotheby’s Hong Kong, 8 October 2010, lot 2681. Some of the overglazed examples are also incised, such as three aubergine and yellow-enamelled bowls, one in the British Museum, illustrated by J. Harrison-Hall, Ming Ceramics in the British Museum, London, 2001, pp. 330-1, pl. 11:143; one in the C. P. Lin Collection, illustrated in Ming and Qing Chinese Arts, Hong Kong, 2014, p. 207, no. 107; and a third sold at Christie’s Hong Kong, 28 November 2018, lot 2923 (fig. 1).