Large polychrome porcelain dish with "Swatow" decoration, late Ming dynasty, Wanli period in Chongzhen, circa 1600-1640 From the Pinghe or Hua`an kilns in Heping county, Zhangzhou prefecture, Fujian province. Enameled in iron red, green and black on glaze, the center of this polychrome dish is adorned with a dial bearing a two-character inscription 太極 - Tienxi Yi ("Unity under the sky") in the center. Around the edge of the dial, a twenty-four-character inscription represents the sexagesimal cycle (干支, gānzhī), made up of the "Ten celestial trunks" (天干, tiāngān) and "Twelve earthly branches"(地支, dìzhī) of the Chinese zodiac. The border is decorated with leaping carps. Diameter: 37.5 cm Reference: - For a very similar dish in Swatow porcelain, see: Zhangzhou Export Porcelain, the So-Called Swatow Wares, Jorge Welsh Books, 2006, p. 133, item 28. - For another Ming porcelain dish of this motif, see: Sumarah Adhyatman, Zhanzhou (Swatow) Ceramics, Sixteenth to Seventeenth Centuries Found in Indonesia, The Ceramic Society of Indonesia, 1999, p. 147, pl. 193. - For other Ming dishes with this motif, see: Barbara Harrison, Swatow, Museum Het Princessehof, 1979, pl. 104 and 109; for a dish with a different border, see pl. 206. - A large fragment of a bowl with a similar central motif was discovered at the Dongkou kiln site in Wuzhai, Pinhe County.