A fine doucai 'lingzhi' dish, Mark and period of Jiajing | 明嘉靖 鬪彩靈芝紋盤 《大明嘉靖年製》款

Christie's Hong Kong, 25th October 1993, lot 730.

香港佳士得1993年10月25日，編號730

A dish of this design, also of Jiajing mark and period, from the Qing court collection and still preserved in the Palace Museum, Beijing, is published in The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum: Porcelains in Polychrome and Contrasting Colours, Hong Kong, 1999, pl. 185. Two other Jiajing dishes of this design in the Palace Museum, Taipei, one very similar to the present piece, the other somewhat differently coloured, were included in the Special Exhibition of Ch'eng-hua Porcelain Ware, Taipei, 2003, cat. nos 187 and 188, together with three Chenghua prototypes of very similar shape and design but much smaller size, cat. nos 184-618. See also a closely related dish of this size and colour combination sold twice in these rooms, 20th May 1987, lot 428, and again, 25th April 2004, lot 221.

This design was revived again in the Yongzheng period, when very similar dishes were made, inscribed with a Yongzheng mark in a double square; compare the pair of dishes sold in these rooms, 24th November 1987, lot 163.