Tianqi period (1620-1627)
The dish is painted with the scholar and calligrapher Wang Xizhi seated on a low chair on a terrace near a lake with rocks and mountains in the distance while an attendant approches him holding a goose, all within an octafoil ruyi-shaped panel, four panels containing white lotus reserved on a blue ground. The reverse has two plum branches, the base is painted with a circle.
21 cm diameter
The figure depicted on the present dish is Wang Xizhi, the famous calligrapher who lived during the fourth century. He admired geese because of their S-shaped neck, which inspired him, and is therefore often depicted being offered a goose, as on the present vase. Wang Xizhi wrote the Preface to the Poems Composed at the Orchid Pavilion, a literary masterpiece which has inspired calligraphers throughout Chinese history.
Provenance: Formerly in a Japanese private collection
BFE 06 明天啟 青花「王羲之愛鵝」紋盤
時代：明天啟，西元1620至1627年。
特徵：此器為日本市場而製。如意造型的開光內描繪坐在湖邊露臺上的書法家王羲之，一旁的侍從手上抱著鵝。盤心另外四個開光則描繪藍地白蓮紋，背面有梅枝裝飾，底座則繪有一個藍色圓圈。
尺寸：直徑21公分。
來源：原為日本私人收藏。
