Lot 39. A yellow-ground green-enamelled saucer dish, mark and period of Jiajing. Estimate HKD 70,000 — 90,000 (7,902 - 10,160 EUR). Lot Sold 375,000 HKD (42,334 EUR). Photo: Sotheby's.

with rounded sides rising from a short tapered foot to a flaring rim, the interior incised and painted in green enamel with a central medallion enclosing a leafy floral spray within double-line borders, surrounded by six alternating flowering and fruiting sprays at the cavetto below a line border, the decoration repeated on the exterior, all reserved on a yellow ground of rich egg-yolk tone, the yellow base incised with a six-character reign mark within a double circle in green enamel - 9.1 cm, 3 5/8  in.

Provenance: Sotheby's London, 21st March 1961, lot 40 (£310, one of a pair). 
John Sparks Ltd, London, 1961 (£310, one of a pair).
Collection of Roger Pilkington (1928-69), from 1961 (£310, one of a pair).

Literature: Adrian Joseph, Ming Porcelains: Their Origins and Development, London, 1971, back cover and pl. 76.

Note: Dishes decorated with this charming design are more commonly known in larger size, such as one in the Shanghai Museum, Shanghai, illustrated in Lu Minghua, Shanghai Bowuguan cangpin yanjiu daxi/Studies of the Shanghai Museum Collections: A Series of Monographs. Mingdai guanyao ciqi [Ming imperial porcelain], Shanghai, 2007, pl. 1-63; another in the Idemitsu Museum of Arts, Tokyo, included in the Museum’s exhibition Gen Min no tōji [Exhibition of Yuan and Ming ceramics], Tokyo, 1977, cat. no. 85; one, from the H.R.N. Norton collection, sold in our London rooms, 5th November 1963, lot 181; and a fourth dish sold at Christie’s London, 21st June 2001, lot 82.

Sotheby's. The Pilkington Collection of Chinese Art, Hong Kong, 06 Apr 2016