An extremely rare green-ground sancai dish, Mark and period of Wanli | 明萬曆 綠地素三彩八寶靈芝紋撇口盤 《大明萬曆年製》款

Several dishes of this unusual group are known, but of different sizes and varying considerably in the shape of the central vase, sometimes ovoid with three mask handles, raised on an elaborate foot, of square baluster or beaker form. 

Two slightly smaller dishes in the Baur collection are illustrated in John Ayers, The Baur Collection, Geneva. Chinese Ceramics, vol. 2, Geneva, 1969, pls A 206 and 207; a slightly larger dish from the R.H.R. Palmer collection, included in the Oriental Ceramic Society exhibition The Arts of the Ming Dynasty, London, 1957, cat. no. 208; two further dishes were sold in our London rooms, one from the B.Z. Seligman collection, 11th May 1954, lot 52, and the other from the collection of Wilfrid Evill, 30th November 1965, lot 32; and a slightly smaller example from the collections of H.R.N. Norton and Roger Pilkington was sold in these rooms, 6th April 2016, lot 41. 

Compare also a much larger Wanli mark and period dish of a similar pattern (29.3 cm), from the Sir Percival David collection and now in the British Museum, London, illustrated in Margaret Medley, Illustrated Catalogue of Ming Polychrome Wares, London, 1978, pl. 99; and another dish from the Grandidier collection and now in the Musée Guimet, Paris (23.2 cm), illustrated in Oriental Ceramics. The World’s Great Collections, vol. 7, Tokyo, 1981, pl. 77.