Two Longquan celadon-glazed dishes, Ming dynasty | 明 龍泉窰青釉盤 一組兩件

Collection of John Turner (1901-1970), and thence by family descent. 

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John Turner (1901-1971)先生收藏，此後家族傳承

Of wide diameter with deep fluted sides and upturned flattened rim, the present lot is typical of Longquan celadon wares produced in the late 13th and early 14th centuries for an Islamic market. Three sets of drilled dot inscriptions adorn the base of one of the dishes. Dots of this type arranged in similar geometric patterns are found on many pieces in major Islamic collections and were likely used to indicate the identities of former owners. An identical three dot pattern, for example, appears on thirty-seven celadon pieces in the Topkapi Saray Museum, see Regina Krahl, Chinese Ceramics in the Topkapi Saray Museum, Istanbul, London, 1986, vol. I, pp. 125-30. Carved into the same base are two Arabic inscriptions, one reading “A’zam Khan”, which are generally considered to be waqf (religious endowment) marks, used to record the dedication of a piece to a ruler or local official. Compare similarly rendered waqf marks found on all but thirty-one surviving pieces in the Ardebil Shrine in modern-day Iran, see John Alexander Pope, Chinese Porcelains from the Ardebil Shrine, Washington, D.C., 1956, pp. 51-8. At least two other dishes bearing a dedication to A'zam Khan have been sold in our rooms: one in Hong Kong, 16th May 1977, lot 26; the other in London 13th December 1988, lot 127. 

With subtle glaze pooling over a gently impressed floral spray design, these understated dishes are typical of those found in major Islamic collections including six closely related pieces in the Topkapi Saray illustrated in Krahl, op. cit., pls. 78-83; and several from the Ardebil Shrine including one illustrated in Pope, op. cit., pl. 124 and two others with similar unglazed rings on their bases, described ibid., p155.