YONGLE PERIOD (1403-1425)

Large, luxurious dishes of this type were very popular exports to India and the Middle East, as evinced by the large numbers of examples published in collections in Istanbul and Tehran, and the large number of copies made in earthenware. For examples of various designs found on these dishes see R. Krahl, Chinese Ceramics in the Topkapi Saray Museum, Istanbul, vol. 2, London, 1985, pp. 512-514, nos. 599-607 and J. A. Pope, Chinese Porcelains from the Ardebil Shrine, Washington, 1956, pl. 34, no. 29:88, for a dish of similar size and design to the present dish.

Yongle blue and white dishes of this type, however, were also traditionally prized by Chinese collectors. A dish of this design was excavated at Dongmentou, Zhushan, in 1994 and included in the Chang Foundation exhibition Imperial Hongwu and Yongle Porcelain Excavated at Jingdezhen, Taipei, 1996, p. 153, no. 44. Other similar examples include one in the National Palace Museum, Taipei, published in the Illustrated Catalogue of Ming Dynasty Porcelain, pl. 37; one exhibited at the Hong Kong Museum of Art, Ming and Ch'ing Porcelain from the Collection of the T.Y. Chao Family Foundation, 1978, no. 5; one illustrated by J. Ayers in The Baur Collection, Geneva, 1969, vol. II, no. A140; and another included in An Exhibition of Blue-Decorated Porcelain of the Ming Dynasty, Philadelphia Museum of Art, 1949, p. 36, no. 38 (lent by C.T. Loo). Comparable Yongle dishes sold at auction include one from the Henry M. Knight Collection sold at Bonhams Hong Kong, 4 June 2019, lot 27, and another sold at Sotheby’s Hong Kong, 4 April 2012, lot 2152.