A blue and white ‘Zhong Kui’ dish, Mark and period of Wanli | 明萬曆 青花鍾馗圖盤 《大明萬曆年製》款

This dish is notable for the vibrant scene painted in the centre, depicting Zhong Kui, the 'Demon Queller', sipping wine beneath a pine tree whilst being entertained by demons playing drums and preforming acrobatic tricks. Zhong Kui was the legendary scholar who committed suicide on the steps of the Imperial Palace after being deprived of holding the title for passing the civil service examinations. After returning to the mortal world to save Emperor Xuanzong (685-762) from the evil spirits and ghosts plaguing his sleep, he was posthumously restored to his rightful position, and given the sobriquet 'Demon Queller'.

Compare a similar dish from the H. R. Harris Collection, and now preserved in the Old Speech Room Gallery, Harrow School, London, illustrated in R. L. Hobson and A. L. Hetherington, The Art of the Chinese Potter, London, 1982, pl. CLII; and a dish painted with an immortal and his servants, in the British Museum, London, published in Jessica Harrison-Hall, Catalogue of the Late Yuan and Ming Ceramics In the British Museum, London, 2001, pl. 11:117.