Beschreibung:

A rare Chinese blue and white porcelain "Five Cranes" charger, of heavily potted form, painted with an arrangement of five cranes interspersed with cloud scrolls, within double-line bands, the underside painted with carp swimming in a lotus pond, the base unglazed, 17.125ins (435mm) diameter x 4ins (103mm) high (Ming Dynasty - Jiajing Period (1522-1566)) Note: An identical dish is illustrated by Krahl & Ayers, Chinese Ceramics in the Topkapi Saray Museum, Istanbul, Volume II, Yuan and Ming Dynasty porcelains, London, 1986, page 631, pl.925., collection number TKS 15/1533, 44.5cm diameter. Cranes in flight in Chinese iconography, yipin niao, form the rebus yipin gao sheng, 'May you rise high and become an official of the first rank'. Provenance: Collection of Sir Alfred Chester Beatty (1875 - 1968). Collection of Alfred Chester Beatty Jnr. Note: Purchased by T.H. Bradford (vendor's father) managing director of the Selection Trust mining company. Note: Purchased by T.H. Bradford (vendor's father) managing director of the Selection Trust mining company. Sir Alfred Chester Beatty, the son of an American banker with an Irish lineage, graduate from Columbia University, became a successful mining magnate and millionaire philanthropist. The youngest of three brothers, he established the Selection Trust mining company in London in the early 20th Century. Knighted for supplying the Allies with strategic raw materials during World War II , he retired in 1950, handing over the running of the company to his son Alfred Chester Beatty, who retired in 1968, the year his father died. Sir Alfred, a collector of minerals, Chinese snuff bottles and stamps since childhood, will be remembered for amassing an important group of oriental books, manuscripts and works of art. On his retirement in 1950 he decided to move to Dublin and built a library for his art collection on Shrewsbury Road which opened in 1954. On his death the collection was left in trust for the benefit of the public, and in the year 2000 was moved to Dublin Castle.