A rare yellow-glazed saucer-dish

Zhengde six-character mark and of the period

Footnotes

明正德 黃釉撇口盤
青花「大明正德年製」楷書款

Provenance: Dr Arthur Spriggs (1919-2015), acquired from Bluett & Son, Ltd., London, and thence by descent.

來源： Arthur Spriggs(1919-2015)醫生收藏，購自倫敦古董商Bluett & Son Ltd.，並由後人保存迄今

Dr Arthur Spriggs (1919-2015)

Educated at Winchester and New College, Oxford, Arthur Spriggs was a distinguished medical scientist for much of his very long life. He held a number of senior positions at Oxford's Radcliffe Infirmary and Churchill Hospital where he lectured and published extensively in his specialist field of cancer research. His early published research was accompanied by illustrations of cell preparations carefully drawn (using a microscope) by his accomplished water-colourist wife Gereth. Later in his career he pioneered the use of electron microscopy in the observation of chromosome anomalies and the detection of cancers, establishing the first regional screening service.
Arthur's personal interests extended to botany (he created and maintained a large 'natural' garden at his home); molluscs and snails (an indefatigable field worker, he must have surveyed every square kilometre of Oxfordshire during his long but active retirement); and, of course, Chinese porcelain, especially 17th century blue and white. A keen supporter for many years of the London-based Oriental Ceramic Society, he presented a ground-breaking lecture in 1965 which documented certain types of Chinese and Japanese porcelain featured in Western paintings between AD 1450-1700; published in the Transactions', Vol.36, it stimulated further investigation into the handsome 'vanitas' oil paintings which greatly enhanced the houses of successful Netherlandish burghers during the 17th century 'Dutch Golden Age'.

Yellow dishes from the Zhengde period can be found in some of the most important museums and private collections, see The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum: Monochrome Porcelain, Hong Kong, 1999, pl.41; another is illustrated in M.Medley, Illustrated Catalogue of Ming and Ch'ing Monochrome in the Percival David Foundation of Chinese Art, London, 1973, pl.597 (now in the British Museum, London); and a third is illustrated by J.Ayers, Chinese Ceramics: The Koger Collection, London, 1985, pl.69.

Compare with a very similar dish which was sold at Sotheby's London on 10 November 2010, lot 62; another similar dish was sold in these rooms on 17 May 2012, lot 308.