T2 An exceedingly rare “Parasol” dish for the Japanese market, Tianqi, Ming Dynasty

Description

Description:   Chinese very rare dish made for the Japanese market. It is painted in pale underglaze blue with a scene of two figures walking under a cloudy sky, near a pine and a plantain. One of the figures is holding an umbrella or parasol. It is interesting to read how the same scene is described for the three reference dishes, see the text of the penultimate picture. The dish bears an apocryphal Chenghua mark and a cataloging number, may be from a Museum or a Collection.

The style of the figures is quite different from that of the standard figures on Chinese porcelain. We have found only three other examples, although all them much smaller, as explained in the References here below.

Dating:  First quarter of 17^th century, Tianqi period, Ming dynasty.

Size:  32 cm diameter

Provenance:  Antiquarian market

References:  The first two of the last three pictures are showing three dishes with the same motif and same style, from “The Peony Pavilion Collection: Chinese Tea Ceramics for Japan (c. 1580-1650)”. It is the catalog of Christie’s Auction held on June 12^th, 1989. From that catalog, an excerpt of the description of The Peony Pavilion Collection:

“The auction of this collection gives Western collectors and Academics the opportunity unprecedented in Europe, to examine an extensive range of the specialized types of late Ming Chinese export ceramics, made for the Japanese market at a period of some obscurity in Chinese porcelain production. No such family collection has been offered for sale before outside Japan, and this is almost certainly the most varied and instructive study group of such wares assembled anywhere in the West. The collection has been formed in Japan by one family over six generations, the earliest documented acquisition being made in 1781.”

The last picture is showing a Japanese dish with a diameter of 22 cm, with the same motif, from Shibata 2 #272, dated 1660-80. Read Notes here below.

Notes:  This dish is exceedingly rare. As said above in the Description and References chapters, only three Chinese small dishes, which too bears an apocryphal Chenghua mark, plus two similarly decorated but Japanese, one from Shibata, and another one from an English commercial site, have been found at the date. Note that the only three known Chinese small dishes are in a six generations’ old collection; our one is, at the date, the only one known of this big size.  Because of that, and because of the unusual style of the decoration, the dish has been long studied and discussed among experts in order to determine if it is surely Chinese or Japanese. The final general consensus has been that the dish is Chinese, being the two Japanese ones surely Japanese for many details, as well as the dish in question is Chinese because of typical details like the shaping of the foot, the placing of the two circles, etc. But it is interesting to note that the unusual style of the figures is the same on the very few Chinese and Japanese examples known. In our opinion, being them about contemporary and knowing that the Chinese were following their styles rather rigidly, it is possible that the Chinese dishes were made to order by copying a Japanese sample.