A Chinese porcelain early Ming blue and white circular deep dish. Yongle, 1403-1424.  Photo Marchant

with flat everted lipped rim, painted in the centre with three bunches of grapes among leaves and scrolling tendrils, encircled by a double ring, the cavetto with twelve principal blooms on a composite floral scroll, including chrysanthemum, peach, peony, rose, pink, morning glory, lotus, tree peony, hibiscus and pomegranate, amongst buds and smaller flowers, all encircled by a crested wave border at the rim, the exterior similarly painted with twelve further principal blooms, the smooth unglazed base encircled by a classic wedge-shaped foot rim and partially burnt orangein the firing. 14 ¾ inches, 37.5 cm diameter. Price on request

Formerly in a private American collection, New Jersey, USA.

A similar dish is illustrated by John A. Pope in Chinese Porcelains from the Ardebil Shrine, plate 38, no. 29.52; another is illustrated by Regina Krahl and John Ayers in Chinese Ceramics in the Topkapi Saray Museum, Istanbul, vol. 2 Yuan and Ming Dynasty Porcelain, no. 606, p. 514; another is illustrated by Tohru Toguri in Chinese Ceramics in the Toguri Collection, Toguri Museum of Art no. 82, p. 72; another is illustrated by Hasebe in Exhibition of Blue and White Porcelain from the Shanghai Museum, Japan, 1988, no. 24, p. 45; another is illustrated in Sekai Toji Zenshu, vol. 14, no. 147, p. 164; yet another from a private collection in Houston, USA, was included by Eskenazi in their exhibition of Yuan and Early Ming Porcelain, 1994, no. 13, pp. 40-1.

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A Chinese porcelain early Ming blue and white circular deep dish. Yongle, 1403-1424. Topkapi Saray Museum, Istanbul