A 'FAMILLE VERTE' PORCELAIN 'WATER MARGIN' DISH
China, 19th century

On the bottom three figures dressed in military-style clothes, the back of the wall with a green glaze.

22 x 3 cm

Provenance: European private collection.
The decoration on this dish is inspired by "The Water Margin" (Shuihu Zhuan), a novel set at the beginning of the 12th century and published for the first time in the middle of the 16th century, in which are told the stories of a group of outlaws who teamed up to fight the central government corruption. The story became very popular, inspiring a large number of works of art, including numerous porcelains.
The inscriptions which appear on the figures are the names of the represented characters of the novel.