A Chinese Wucai ‘Immortals’ bowl

Painted and enamelled on the exterior with four Immortals, each carrying their individual attributes within a grove of pine interspersed with four lanterns, all between a border of lotus-head scroll beneath the rim and classic scroll on the foot, the interior with a front-facing dragon encircling a flaming pearl in the well and ruyi-heads beneath the rim. Apocryphal Wanli six-character mark. Diameter: 16,5 cm.

Compare with a related wucai bowl enamelled with Immortals, some flying on cranes, illustrated in Porcelain of the National Palace Museum: Enamelled Ware of the Ming Dynasty, Hong Kong, 1966, pls. 14 and 14a-d. Another example decorated with scenes of a Daoist ritual and with a different floral meander below the rim is illustrated by P.Y.K.Lam, Enlightening Elegance: Imperial Porcelain of the Mid to Late Ming: The Huaihaitang Collection, Hong Kong, 2012, no. 83.