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This
is a very important porcelain. As the Annam Vase is to the 15th
century, this dish is just as important to the 14th century, born from
legend, and having been made specifically for the Court of Hongwu.
To
the best of my knowledge, there are no authenticated porcelain pieces
baring the Hongwu reign mark. Even thermoluminescent testing
would not help, since it's accuracy range gives too wide a
range to distinguish between late Yuan and early Ming. Of the thousands
of shards unearthed from the Hongwu stratum during the many
excavations conducted at Zhushan over the years, not one piece
contains a Hongwu reign mark. Even Hobson questioned two rare pieces
housed at the British Museum, stating that one was "almost
certainly a Japanese imitation". The first mark
in fact suggesting Ming Imperial quality was from the Yongle
stratum, and that mark was the image of a dragon, not a reign
mark.
Any
piece proclaimed authentic Hongwu not baring a mark
identifying it as Ming, is only a guess. The Anhui Dish stands alone in
this category and is quite possibly the first known example of Hongwu
Imperial porcelain.
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