A rare brown-glazed 'phoenix' dish mark and period of Jiajing

the rounded sides rising from a short tapered foot, lightly incised to the interior with a central medallion enclosing a phoenix flying amid cloud swirls, its out-stretched wings long feathery tail detailed with finely incised lines, the exterior similarly decorated with two phoenix in mutual pursuit, covered overall with a dark café-au-lait glaze, the base reserved in white and inscribed with the six-character mark  in underglaze-blue within double circles

It is rare to find Jiajing café-au-lait glazed pieces with incised decoration.  Compare a blue glazed dish with similar incised phoenix decoration in the Baur Collection, illustrated in John Ayers, Chinese Ceramics in the Baur Collection, vol. 1, Geneva, 1999, p. 139, no. 83.  For an undecorated dish with similar brown glaze, see one in the Beijing Palace Museum, illustrated in The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum, vol. 37, Hong Kong, 1999, no. 57.