Chinese imperial porcelain blue and white small saucer dish, the base with a six character mark of Wanli within a double ring and of the period, 1573-1619.

A Chinese imperial porcelain blue and white small saucer dish, painted in the centre in luminous vivid tones, with three scaled mythical animals including a qilin, a monkey headed qilin and an elephant headed animal, together with a tiger and a dragon emerging from rockwork beneath ruyi clouds, with a pine branch, other plants, rockwork and flowerheads, encircled with a continuous border of a lotus pound with pairs of geese, ducks, cranes and other birds amongst lotus flowers, leaves, arrow heads and aquatic leaves, the underside with six branches of pomegranate, hibiscus, persimmon, morning glory, peach and another flowering branch. Japanese wood box.

The base with a six character mark of Wanli within a double ring and of the period, 1573-1619.

6 3/8 inches, 16.2 cm diameter.

• Sold by Hirano Koto-ken, Tokyo, 1994.
• From a Japanese private collection.
• Sold by Sotheby’s New York in the auction of A Noble pursuit, Important Chinese and Korean Art from A Japanese Private Collection, 11^th September 2019, lot 501, p. 34/5.
• A similar dish from the Songde Tang Collection, was included in the exhibition of The Fame of Flame: Imperial Wares of the Jiajing and Wanli periods, University Museum and Art Gallery, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, 2009, no.87.
• Another dish of the design, formerly in the Riesco Collection was included in the Exhibition of Chinese Blue and White Porcelain, 14^th to 19^th Centuries, Oriental Ceramic Society, 1953, no.173.

Price on application

This object is eligible for a Certificate of BADA Provenance

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