An Impérial Wucai floral dish, China, underglaze blue Wanli six-character mark and of the period. Photo Nagel

The interior decorated with four large iron-red peony blooms reserved on a ground of green and blue foliage, encircled on the cavetto with a border boughs od lychee, groundnut, peach and kaki. Short firing crack to rim, good condition. D. 38,6 cm. Estimate 30 000/40 000 €

Property from a Swiss private collection

Wanli polychrome dishes of related floral pattern, varying slightly in size, can be found in the Idemitsu Museum of Art, Tokyo, illustrated in Chinese Ceramics in the Idemitsu Collection, Tokyo, 1987, pl. 207 (colour); another in the Ataka collection, Tokyo, is published in Masterpieces of Chinese and Koream Ceramics in the Ataka Collection, Tokyo, 1980, Pl. 119; and a third example was included in the exhibition One Hundred Selected Masterpieces of Chinese Ceramics. Osaka, 1961, cat. no. 90, held under the auspices of the Nihon Keizai Shimbun. Further dishes of this form and decoration have been sold at auction; for example see a dish sold Sotheby’s London, 14th December 1982, lot 194; another sold at Christie’s London, 12th October 1970, llot 15; and a third vessel sold Sotheby New York, 2nd November 1979, lot 332.

The present dish can also be found painted in blue-and-white, compare a dish in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, included in Suzanne G. Valenstein. A Handbook of Chinese Ceramics New York, 1989, pl. 178, from the Rogers Fund, and another dish with the design reserved in white on a blue-ground, bearing the double circle and imperial reign mark of Wanly, in the Topkapi Saray Museum, Istanbul, published in T. Misugi. Chinese Porcelain Collections in the Near East. Topkapi and Ardebil, vol. 2. Hong Kong 1981, p. 129, pl. T60

Nagel. "Asian Art". 2012/11/02 http://www.auction.de/