HONGZHI PERIOD (1488-1505)

When the present dish was exhibited at the Gotoh Museum, Tokyo in 1967, its rarity was recorded in a hand written note at the time stating that the dating was "earlier than Chenghua period. The color is good. The shape of the fish is good. The shape of the body is very beautiful and of typical early Ming style".

Compare to three dishes of this type decorated with iron-red fish, including one in the Palace Museum Collection, dated also to Hongzhi period, currently on loan exhibition in the Hong Kong Palace Museum (fig. 1); one in the Capital Museum, Beijing, illustrated in Shoudu Bowuguan Cangcixuan, Wenwu chubanshe, 1991, p. 126, no. 116; and one sold at Sotheby's London, 15 July 1980, lot 93.