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

The present cup is decorated with a continuous frieze of two figures riding tigers, likely representing the legendary Daoist priest Zhang Tianshi, who cuts through evil with his sword. The landscape is further painted with four of the “Five Poisons”: venomous creatures that include the centipede, lizard, scorpion, snake, and toad. This iconography is associated with the Dragon Boat Festival (Duanwu jie), which falls on the fifth day of the fifth lunar month, and objects depicting these creatures were used for their apotropaic qualities during the festival.

The decorative motif of Zhang Tianshi and the “Five Poisons” is more commonly depicted on dishes from the Wanli period (1573-1619), such as the example in the Palace Museum, Beijing, and illustrated in Porcelains in Polychrome and Contrasting Colors – 38 – The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum, Hong Kong, 1999, p. 51, no. 47. A dish decorated on the interior with Zhang Tianshi riding a qilin and on the exterior with a lizard and floral motifs was sold at Christie’s New York, 25 March 2022, lot 1112.