Description
Description: Chinese porcelain small dish decorated in underglaze cobalt blue with two singing birds perched on a branch. The two birds singing laugh are related to the Chinese four words idiom 喜上眉梢 (Xǐ shàng méishāo), that can be translated as follow: Xi is Xi Que, Magpie, same sound as Joy (喜 =喜鵲 =喜事); Shang is up; Mei is plum, same sound as eyebrow (梅 =眉), and Shao is Branch. The motif is two birds up a plum tree, singing loud to each other about the joyful news. And so, the dish will bring: Xi Shang Mei Shao, a happy face because of the joyful news, with the broad smile right up to the eyebrow.
The decoration on the reverse has abstract influence. Besides a pair of abstract motifs, we can recognize two seated boys and what looks like four frogs over a Leaf at the moonlight (in Chinese culture Frogs and Toads are symbols of Healing, Immortality, Money and Moon (Lunar Yin). The sitting boy motif appears to be derived from the drawing of Wang Zhaojun found on Chenghua bowls, see for example our bowl T30 with that motif. The dish has a rounded base, with no foot.
Dating: 16th century, mid-Ming period.
Size: 11.8 cm diameter
Provenance: Antiquarian market
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