A very rare late Ming Dynasty ko-sometsuke deep dish boldly painted with a pair of fenghuang Sun-birds (phoenixes) encircling the Sun
 
Jingdezhen, Jiangxi province, China
Ko-sometsuke (Old Blue-and-White) made for the Japanese market
Ming Dynasty (1368-1644), Tianqi period (1621-1627)
 
Measurements 
21.0 cm diameter; 4.0 cm high
 
Description
A very heavily potted deep dish vibrantly painted with an eccentric and characterful depiction of the Myth of the Sun-bird, featuring a pair of Immortal Phoenix in flight amongst clouds, and encircling the 'Sun' (marked to the centre with the Chinese character for 'Sun'). According to ancient Chinese mythology, the God of Heaven (Di Jun) married the Mother of the Sun (Xi He), and she gave birth to ten sons who grew up to become ten suns in the sky. Her ten suns had wings like birds and when they flew across the sky they brought scorching heat across the land. The heat was too much for mankind, so an archer named Hou Yi volunteered to shoot down the ten suns. Hou Yi managed to kill nine of the ten suns, but the last sun was only injured and lost its wings. It fell to the earth and went into hiding for fear of being hunted down and killed by Hou Yi.
With the suns gone from the sky, the Earth fell into complete darkness.
To bring back daylight, the Immortal Phoenix volunteered to find the hiding sun and restore it to the sky. When the Phoenix found the sun it discoverd that the injured sun had lost its wings and could not return to the sky. So the Phoenix took the sun under its own wings and flew it across the sky. With the help of the Phoenix, the sun rose again at dawn, flew across the sky, and set at dusk when the Phoenix brought it back down to its hiding place.
 
Ko-sometsuke, meaning "Old Blue and White" is the term used to describe Chinese blue and white porcelain made for the Japanese market during the late Ming Dynasty. Ko-sometsuke wares were produced from the Wanli period (1573-1620) to the Chongzhen period (1628-1644), with the height of production being within the Tianqi period (1621-27). The objects produced were made specifically for the Japanese market, with the shapes and the designs being tailored to the Japanese taste. The shapes created were often expressly made for the Japanese Kaiseki (Tea Ceremony meal) and included mukozuke (small food dishes), kōro (incense burners), and kōgō (small incense containers).
 
With a traditional Japanese storage box, inner cloths and ribbon.
 
Condition
In excellent original condition with no chips, cracks or restoration.
Expected glaze flakes, mushikui present (literally meaning 'moth-eaten' edges and referring to the areas where the glaze has purposely been rubbed away during production to expose raw clay edges - this techique was highly prized by 17th century Japanese tea masters and scholars as it gave the appearance of both spontinaity in production and antiquity).