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

The decoration of this dish is associated with the Dragon Boat Festival (Duanwu jie), which falls on the fifth day of the fifth lunar month. Many of the themes associated with Duanwu jie relate to the desire to combat evil forces and poisonous creatures. On this dish, we see the legendary Daoist priest Zhang Tianshi, who cuts through evil with his sword. A lizard, one of the ‘Five Poisons’, is depicted on the exterior of the dish.

A Wanli-marked wucai dish of this design was sold at Christie’s Hong Kong, 30 November 2016, lot 3400, and another example was sold at Christie’s London, 17 June 2003, lot 24. A Wanli wucai dish decorated with Zhang Tianshi surrounded by all the ‘Five Poisons’, the snake, centipede, toad, scorpion and lizard, is in the Palace Museum, Beijing, and illustrated in Porcelains in Polychrome and Contrasting Colors, The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum, Hong Kong, 1999, no. 47. The current dish is also related in theme to somewhat larger Wanli wucai dishes such as the examples in the Percival David Foundation and the Tianminlou Foundation, illustrated by R. Scott and R. Kerr in Ceramic Evolution in the Middle Ming Period, V&A and Percival David Foundation, London, 1994, p. 22, no. 25; and L.A. Cort and J. Stuart, Joined Colors, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, 1993, p. 130, no. 57, respectively, which are decorated with the Five Poisonous Creatures on the exterior and another symbol of the Duanwujie festival, dragon boat races, on the interior.