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

Dishes of this pattern and with the combination of enamel and underglaze-blue decoration are rare. An almost identical Wanli dish of the same size in the Palace Museum, Beijing, is illustrated in The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum - 38 - Porcelains in Polychrome and Contrasting Colours, Hong Kong, 1999, no. 50. Another nearly identical Wanli dish is illustrated in Illustrated Catalogues of Tokyo National Museum: Chinese Ceramics, Tokyo, 1965, p. 130, no. 536.
For other related Wanli wucai ‘dragon and phoenix’ dishes, see Mayuyama, Seventy Years, Mayuyama & Co., Ltd., Tokyo, 1976, vol. 1, fig. 942; Christie’s New York, 19 March 2009, lot 720, and the dish from the Edward T. Chow collection sold at Sotheby’s Hong Kong, 19 January 1981, lot 437.