Large Swatow deep circular dish, Pinghe County, Zhangzhou prefecture, Fujian province. Ming dynasty, circa 1600. Photo courtesy Marchant
painted in turquoise, black and iron-red enamel with gently everted rim, painted in the centre with the eight trigrams surrounding a yin yang symbol with a night scene of fishing boats above waves, beside mountains and pavilions, all beneath the stars and the moon within iron-red rings, the cavetto painted with crabs, shrimp, fish, lotus leaves, flowers and aquatic plants, beneath a further narrow border with branches of bamboo and stylised flowers, the underside plain, the foot rim with sand grit. 39.3cm diameter. Price on request
• Formerly in an Japanese collection.
• No other dishes with this combined design appear to be recorded.
• A large dish with crabs and fish on the border encircling phoenix birds and flowers with a central double crane is illustrated by Yoneyama Torataro in The Seikado Bunko Art Museum catalogue of Swatow Wares of the Seikado Collection, no. 47, p. 51, and another with a fish and crab border encircling phoenix birds and flowers with a central landscape medallion is illustrated by Ryoichi Fujioka and Hasuji Hasebe in Sekei Toji Zenshu, Ceramic Art of The World, Volume 14, Ming Dynasty, no. 247, p. 240.
Marchant. 'Chinese Ceramics Tang to Qing' exhibiting tuesday 6th may - friday 30th may 2014 - http://www.marchantasianart.com/