A very rare blue and white 'fish' cinquefoil basin mark and period of Wanli

strongly potted of cinquefoil section, well painted in inky blue tones, the main panel to the interior with fish swimming amid pondweed and rippling currents, the motif repeated on the five lobed sides and on the flattened everted rim, the exterior decorated on the sides with ten precious objects borne on lingzhi on a continuous leafy meander below a similar lingzhi scroll around the underside of the rim, the six-character mark within a double-circle inscribed in underglaze-blue within a recessed medallion in the centre of the unglazed base

Ming Underglaze Blue and Wucai Ware, Osaka Fine Arts Joint Trade Union, Osaka, 1963, cat.no. 29.

Wanli blue-and-white basins of this form decorated with fish swimming amongst weeds appear to be rare, although a basin of similar shape and size painted with the design of fishes and weeds in enamels, also with a Wanli mark and of the period, is illustrated in Mayuyama Seventy Years, vol. 1, Tokyo, 1976, pl. 919. See also a related blue-and-white basin painted with dragons from the Chang Foundation illustrated in Selected Ceramics from Han to Qing Dynasties, Taipei, 1990, pl. 104; and another sold at Christie's Hong Kong, 7th July 2003, lot 651.

Compare another blue-and-white five-lobed Wanli basin, the interior decorated with a mythical beast and other auspicious animals sold in our London rooms, 1/2nd April 1974, lot 204.