Lot 1059. A large blue and white dish, Jiajing six-character mark in underglaze-blue in a line within a rectangle and of the period (1522-1566); 20 in. (51 cm.) diam. Estimate USD 15,000 - USD 25,000. © Christie’s Images Limited 2019.

The heavily potted dish has rounded sides rising from a tapering foot, and is decorated in the interior in bright blue tones of underglaze blue with a large medallion enclosing leafy meander bearing cockscomb flowers, below sprays of pomegranate, peony, chrysanthemum and peach in the cavetto, and the exterior is decorated with three repeated groups of the 'Three Friends of Winter', pine, prunus and bamboo, and the reign mark written in a line within a rectangle at the rim. 

Provenance: Nathan Bentz Asian Arts, San Francisco, 1962. 
John Yeon (1910-1994) Collection, Portland, Oregon.

Note: A Jiajing dish of the same pattern and comparable size ( 19 ½ in. diam.) was sold at Christie's London, 17 June 2003, lot 27. Another similar example is illustrated by J. Harrison-Hall, Ming Ceramics in the British Museum, London, 2001, p. 227, fig. 9:27, where the author notes that floral decoration was relatively rare in the sixteenth century and also that while the style of the painting follows early Ming design, there is no exact model from which this would have been copied, although the nianhao under the rim follows the Xuande precedent. Compare, also, the dish illustrated by R. Krahl and J. Ayers, Chinese Ceramics in the Topkapi Saray Museum, Istanbul, vol. II, p. 631, no. 926.