Blue-and-white porcelain dish

Late Ming dynasty, 17th century

Diameter: 5 1/2 inches, 14 cm
Height: 11/8 inches, 2.9 cm

A moulded, circular porcelain dish with a foliate rim and a short foot rim. The dish is painted with two birds. One bird perches near the top of a branch, the other sits at the tip of a rocky outcrop below him. A full moon or sun is painted on the left of the dish. The exterior is painted with a wispy tree branch on both sides. The base has a six-character inscription in two lines, reading Da Ming Cheng Hua Nian Zhi (made in the Chenghua reign). The decoration on both the interior and exterior is painted in underglaze blue. The thin rim is painted in brown.

This dish, though bearing a Chenghua (1465 – 1487) reign mark on the base, is a product of the late Ming period, made between the Wanli (1573 – 1620) and the Chongzhen (1628 – 1644) reigns. By the late 16th and early 17th century, Jingdezhen in northern Jiangxi province virtually monopolized the production of fine porcelain in China, and the kilns flourished, as wares were made for both the domestic and export markets. In the period of 1622 to 1683 the Jingdezhen kilns, which has enjoyed the financial support of the Ming court for the previous 253 years, were forced to search for new patrons. This was the time that export wares were produced to an extent for the Dutch and Japanese markets, which brought about noticeable changes in style.[1] A comparable blue-and-white dish painted with two birds hovering above a flowering branch, similarly marked with a six-character Chenghua reign mark but dated to the Chongzhen period, is in the Effie B. Allison collection at the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco.[2]

1. Little, S. Chinese Ceramics of the Transitional Period: 1620-1683, Dartmouth, New York, 1984, p. 1
2. Little, S. op. cit. pl. 34, p. 84

青花花鳥紋圓形瓷盤
明晚期 十七世紀 徑：14 公分 高：2.9 公分

瓷胎圓形盤，矮圈足，通體內外罩白釉，釉色泛青，菱邊口緣上施一層褐釉。盤面以青花描繪出花石飛
禽，並於圈足內書「大明成化年製」雙行六字，字體率真自然。雖屬成化年款，但依據器型及青花發色
判斷，應為明晚期民窯之作。由於成化瓷有極高聲譽，明代末年製作瓷器多有托款。