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Dish with rounded sides and narrow, everted rim, the glazed base and the foot with kiln grit. On the interior, in red, turquoise and black enamels a dancing lady in a garden setting near a fence, a prunus, and bamboo growing beside a rock. The well with a conch shell, artemisia leaf, a fan and a bamboo flute separated by seals. Three bamboo alternating with three prunus sprays on the rim. The reverse plain.
Zhangzhou dishes painted only in a strong turquoise within black outlines and a limited use of red form a separate group. They were very popular in Japan where the contrast between the sparingly applied motifs and the large areas left in the white appealed to the Japanese taste. The elegant lady dancing in a garden setting is surrounded by the conch shell: one of the Eight Buddhist Symbols, the artemisia leaf: one of the Eight Precious Objects, the fan: emblem of the Daoist Immortal Zhongli Quan and the flute: emblem of the Daoist Immortal Han Xiangzi. A dish with a similar central design and two dragons on the border is in the Seikado Bunko collection in Tokyo.
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