Dimension: 20.9cm Diameter, 4.1cm Height
This is an exquisite piece to learn and handle authentic Chenghua period piece with great confidence.
Description
A very well potted dish depicting a single 5-clawed dragon writhing across the sky among the ruyi-shaped clouds above raging waves within a double circle in doucai enamels in colors of green, orange red, purplish brown, yellow and underglaze blue is supported by a tapered foot rising to a flat cavetto and suddenly rises steeply in a concave form to a slightly flaring mouth covered overall with shiny and lustrous sheen glaze of ‘duck’s egg’ color with greenish tinge except for the foot revealing extremely fine off white paste body with a six character mark ‘da ming cheng hua nian zhi’ in double circle of Chenghua period 15th century Ming dynasty.
Doucai enamels used in this current piece is transparent giving a see-thru the underglaze blue that is generally pale blue with sometimes some instances of heap-and-pile due to the mix of local ‘ping tang’ cobalt and imported ‘sumali’ cobalt which is typical for the potters to use during Chenghua period. The doucai enamels are applied and the piece is re-fired this time at a lower temperature to set the overglaze enamels, some colored enamels have high shine while some have matt outlook. There appears to be thin patina on the glaze as well.
The paste upon closer examination reveals very little impurities in off white color, there are instances of organic growth that grows within the body paste itself in forms of stringy threads. Mineral inclusion within the glaze can been seen in angular shapes which are 20x smaller than the bubbles indicating a very long subjugation in a mineral rich soil environment perhaps over hundred years which modern made pieces do not exhibit.
Provenance: Acquired from a diver collector from West Java.