Period:Ming dynasty Production date:1573-1610 (circa)
Materials:porcelain
Technique:glazed, underglazed,
Subjects:mammal
Dimensions:Diameter: 14.50 centimetres Height: 7.50 centimetres
Description:
Porcelain bowl with ‘kraak’-type underglaze blue decoration. This bowl has rounded sides, a flared lobed rim and a high straight foot. It is painted in underglaze blue outside with eight panels containing spotted female deer in different attitudes with stylized rocks and a selection of leafy plants. Deer are a common symbol of longevity. Inside, in the centre, is a similarly depicted doe encircled by a double ring and by eight alternating panels showing fruiting or flowering plants growing from a rock shaped like a figure 8. The bowl is covered with a matte glaze which has shrunk, exposing the body somewhat around the foot.
IMG
![图片[1]-bowl BM-1973-0726.378-China Archive](https://chinaarchive.net/Ming dynasty/Ceramics/mid_00355741_001.jpg)
![图片[2]-bowl BM-1973-0726.378-China Archive](https://chinaarchive.net/Ming dynasty/Ceramics/mid_00266372_001.jpg)
Comments:Harrison-Hall 2001:’Kraak’-type bowls of this design were made for more than three decades in great quantities at Jingdezhen and were transported throughout the globe to America, Europe, the Near East and South-east Asia. This truly international trade flourished during the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries. Whole and part bowls of this type have been recovered from the cargoes of several wrecks, including those of English, Spanish, Portuguese and Dutch ships. For example, bowls of this design were recovered from the cargo which may have belonged to the famous English explorer Sir Francis Drake’s ship, the Golden Hind, found off Limantour Point in Drake’s Bay, San Francisco, California. Some archaeologists doubt whether the pieces are from Drake’s ship, first as no one knows the exact location of where he stopped and second because there are shards from the San Agustin, which sank in 1595, also in the same location. In addition, two similar bowls were salvaged from the San Diego, a Spanish warship, which sank on 14 December 1600 (see BM Franks.1579). Shards of another bowl of the same type were found among the wrecked cargo of the Witte Leeuw, a Dutch East Indiaman, which sank in 1613 (see BM 1921.1107.1).Although they were produced in vast numbers, European owners of these Jingdezhen bowls treated them as prized possessions. For example, bowls of this design are depicted in Dutch still-life oil paintings of the early seventeenth century. Jan Soreau (fl. 1615-38) painted just such a bowl, filled with fresh raspberries, as part of a composition that is now in the Walters Art Gallery, Baltimore. Furthermore, in England, a bowl of this type, consecrated to the baptismal office, can be traced through documentary evidence prior to the foundation of the first English East India Company in 1600. Similarly in the Middle East such bowls were guarded in treasuries of the rulers of the nation. Two slightly different versions of this bowl are included in the pre-1611 collections of Shah Abbas at the Ardebil shrine, now in the Iran Bastan Museum, Teheran. These bowls, while made in large volume, vary substantially in quality. A particularly fine example is in the Percival David Foundation of Chinese Art, London. A further example is in the Museum of Anastacio Goncalves in Lisbon.
Materials:porcelain
Technique:glazed, underglazed,
Subjects:mammal
Dimensions:Diameter: 14.50 centimetres Height: 7.50 centimetres
Description:
Porcelain bowl with ‘kraak’-type underglaze blue decoration. This bowl has rounded sides, a flared lobed rim and a high straight foot. It is painted in underglaze blue outside with eight panels containing spotted female deer in different attitudes with stylized rocks and a selection of leafy plants. Deer are a common symbol of longevity. Inside, in the centre, is a similarly depicted doe encircled by a double ring and by eight alternating panels showing fruiting or flowering plants growing from a rock shaped like a figure 8. The bowl is covered with a matte glaze which has shrunk, exposing the body somewhat around the foot.
IMG
Comments:Harrison-Hall 2001:’Kraak’-type bowls of this design were made for more than three decades in great quantities at Jingdezhen and were transported throughout the globe to America, Europe, the Near East and South-east Asia. This truly international trade flourished during the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries. Whole and part bowls of this type have been recovered from the cargoes of several wrecks, including those of English, Spanish, Portuguese and Dutch ships. For example, bowls of this design were recovered from the cargo which may have belonged to the famous English explorer Sir Francis Drake’s ship, the Golden Hind, found off Limantour Point in Drake’s Bay, San Francisco, California. Some archaeologists doubt whether the pieces are from Drake’s ship, first as no one knows the exact location of where he stopped and second because there are shards from the San Agustin, which sank in 1595, also in the same location. In addition, two similar bowls were salvaged from the San Diego, a Spanish warship, which sank on 14 December 1600 (see BM Franks.1579). Shards of another bowl of the same type were found among the wrecked cargo of the Witte Leeuw, a Dutch East Indiaman, which sank in 1613 (see BM 1921.1107.1).Although they were produced in vast numbers, European owners of these Jingdezhen bowls treated them as prized possessions. For example, bowls of this design are depicted in Dutch still-life oil paintings of the early seventeenth century. Jan Soreau (fl. 1615-38) painted just such a bowl, filled with fresh raspberries, as part of a composition that is now in the Walters Art Gallery, Baltimore. Furthermore, in England, a bowl of this type, consecrated to the baptismal office, can be traced through documentary evidence prior to the foundation of the first English East India Company in 1600. Similarly in the Middle East such bowls were guarded in treasuries of the rulers of the nation. Two slightly different versions of this bowl are included in the pre-1611 collections of Shah Abbas at the Ardebil shrine, now in the Iran Bastan Museum, Teheran. These bowls, while made in large volume, vary substantially in quality. A particularly fine example is in the Percival David Foundation of Chinese Art, London. A further example is in the Museum of Anastacio Goncalves in Lisbon.
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