Page 10 - Ming Porcelain Primer
P. 10
19 DISH The dish is finely and lively decorated in the wucai, five colours, technique,
combining cobalt blue and bright enamels.
Jingdezhen porcelain, decorated
in wucai with underglaze blue and Within a bracketed lobed panel, a scaly, five-clawed yellow dragon
enamels with red detailing supports a basin filled with lingzhi, fungi of immortality,
H 4.8 cm, Dia. 28.0 cm and a disc inscribed with the character yong, eternity, above its head.
Ming dynasty, Wanli (1573–1620) reign Below, two stylised phoenixes confront each other, amid fire and cloud
Six-character Wanli mark and of the scrolls and crested waves around the mountain, which represents the
period world. The reserved panel is surrounded by an underglaze blue coin-
Inv.-No. NO 21, on loan from the OKS pattern medallion, and the well is decorated with blue and iron-red carps
PROVENANCE: Acquired by Nanne swimming among waterweeds. The outside is painted with overlapping
Ottema from antique dealer multicoloured ruyi heads.
M. Keezer, Amsterdam, in 1928
Publ.: Harrisson 1985, no. 64; Borstlap, The dragon is depicted front on and seems to almost have the
Terlouw, Hidding 1993, p. 27, no. 20 expression of a wild, human face, its hair streaming on both sides. In Chi-
nese, this type is called zhengmian long, full-faced dragon. This motif
became popular in the late Ming and early Qing period, particularly in the
wucai designs during the reign of the Wanli emperor.
Ref.: A comparable piece was auctioned at Christie’s, Hong Kong, the Imperial Sale, 29 April 2002, as lot
no. 617. For related pieces: Lu 2004, p. 64, pl. 1.92.
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