Bowl with Inscription

Unknown artist

Porcelain produced during the short reign of the Longqing emperor is rare. The elegantly written inscription quotes from the Song of the Lady with the Silk Worms, a poem by the famed Xie Fangde (1226–1289), and reads in part: “Not only does the moon shine through the willows before the storied house but pretty girls continue to dance and sing ...take heed lest the silkworms have not enough leaves.”