Decorated with Immortals likely situated in the Daoist Paradise. These include the Eight Immortals, and Xiwangmu Queen Mother of the West, and others playing weiqi, all set against a rare honeycomb patterned ground.
Height: 17 inches (43 cm.)
Ex: Private New York Collection (acquired in the early to mid-1900s)
An almost identical example is the in the Anthony de Rothschild Collection, now at the Ascot Estate, UK, illustrated by Kraahl, The Anthony de Rothschild Collection of Chinese Ceramics, 1996: Vol. 1, No. 87. Another was formerly in the collection of JT Tai (sold at Sotheby’s, New York, March 22, 2011, Lot 96).
A small Fahua tile in the British Museum is similarly decorated with deities, identified as the Three Official Great Primordial Rulers (San Guan Da Di), popular Daoist stellar deities also known as the controllers of Heaven, Earth and Water, see Jessica Harrison-Hall, Ming Ceramics in the British Museum, London, 2001, pp. 426-427, pl. 13.35.