Lot Essay
See a closely related dish from the Jinguantang Collection, sold at Christie's Hong Kong, 2 November 1999, lot 578. The Jinguantang dish was formerly in the Collection of Captain C. Oswald Liddell, no. 153, and was exhibited with its pair at Bluett and Sons, London and subsequently sold at Christie's London, 19 April 1983, lot 380. Other published examples of dishes of this size and pattern include one illustrated in Qing Porcelain of Kangxi, Yongzheng and Qianlong Periods from the Palace Museum Collection, Hong Kong, 1989, p. 122, no. 105; one in the National Palace Museum, illustrated in Enameled Ware of the Ch'ing Dynasty, Book I, Hong Kong, 1969, pp. 62-63, pl. 7-7b; and another by J. Ayers, Far Eastern Ceramics in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, 1980, fig. 197. The design of the current dish appears to be based on Wanli prototypes, such as the small dish (measuring 28.3cm.) decorated with a related design of two dragons chasing a flaming pearl below floral sprays in the well and painted on the biscuit in a similar palette, included in the exhibition Ceramic Evolution in the Middle Ming Period, Hongzhi to Wanli (1488-1620), 8 September 1994 - 7 February 1995, and illustrated by R. Scott and R. Kerr in the Catalogue, Singapore, 1997, p. 27, no. 41.