Lot 3828. A rare Ming doucai dish, Jiajing six-character mark within double-squares and of the period (1522-1566); 5 3/4 in. (14.8 cm.) diam. Estimate HKD 100,000 - HKD 200,000. Price Realized HKD 1,160,000. © Christie's Images Ltd. 2011

The shallow flared sides with sharply-angled base supported on a narrow ring foot, the exterior decorated with a frieze of detached lingzhi sprays in underglaze-blue, iron-red and yellow with underglaze-blue outlines, beneath a double line encircling the rim, the flat centre on the interior decorated with a medallion of interlaced ruyi-heads and petals in the same colours with the addition of pale green, enclosing a yellow circle, within a yellow ring border with underglaze-blue outlines, the characteristic waxy glaze burnt orange in a thin line where it meets the unglazed footrim, Japanese wood box.

Provenance: Mayuyama Ryusendo, Tokyo, Japan

Literature Mayuyama, 70 years, vol. 1, Tokyo, 1975, no. 836

Note: Compare with two very similar dishes, also bearing Jiajing six-character marks within double-squares, illustrated in Ch'eng-hua Porcelain Ware, National Palace Museum, Taipei, 2003, nos. 187 and 188. An example is also in the Palace Museum, Beijing, illustrated in Porcelains in Polychrome and Contrasting Colours, The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum, Hong Kong, 1999, pl.185. Compare also a number of examples sold at auction including one at Christie's Hong Kong, 25 October 1993, lot 730; and two at Sotheby's Hong Kong, 25 April 2004, lot 221 and 31 October 2004, lot 116.