Period:Ming dynasty Production date:1600-1620 (circa)
Materials:porcelain
Technique:glazed, underglazed,
Subjects:bird boat/ship fish landscape,flower
Dimensions:Diameter: 46 centimetres Height: 9 centimetres
Description:
‘Swatow-type’ dish with underglaze blue decoration. This large heavily potted dish has rounded sides and a broad tapering gritty foot. Inside it is painted in murky shades of blue beneath a greyish glaze. A marine rose radiating lines is in the centre, with two large cargo ships under sail on either side and with a giant fish-like sea monster half-emerging from waves below and an idealized landscape with two ornamental gates in the foreground and mountain peaks in the distance. Surrounding this in the cavetto are cartouches framing emblematic patterns in opposite pairs, the most elaborate ones flanked by exotic parrots with long tails. Spaces between are ornamented with tasselled hangings on a ground of reserved white crosses on a blue ground. Outside stylized plants and clouds are hastily depicted. The base is covered with grit and is unusual as it has been flattened in a disc shape in the centre.
IMG
![图片[1]-dish BM-1964-0414.1-China Archive](https://chinaarchive.net/Ming dynasty/Ceramics/mid_00262856_001.jpg)
Comments:Harrison-Hall 2001:The ships depicted here are not Chinese junks but Portuguese trading vessels. Each ship has a double set of sails and two masts with details such as the rigging and flags clearly visible. The designs in the cavetto relate to European coats of arms and may be interpreted as pseudo-armorial devices. It is likely that the dish’s design originated in a foreign print, probably a map or a study of boats at sea. It is quite common for sixteenth-century maps to include pictures of sea monsters and seascapes with ships tossed on high seas.This elaborate dish is not unique and comparable examples survive in several public and private collections, with minor variations. A large shard from this type of vessel, collected in Indonesia, is in the Princessehof Museum, Leeuwarden. Two similar whole dishes, one with stellar constellations around the central marine rose, the other showing a whole fish-monster, are also in the Princessehof Museum, Leeuwarden. Another, from a private Lisbon collection, was included in a recent exhibition in the Musee Guimet, Paris. A further example is in the private Mottahedeh Collection. In the Idemitsu Museum of Arts, Tokyo, there is an overglazed enamelled dish with a comparable design but with the addition of four characters in individual roundels in the cavetto, grouped in opposing pairs. These read ‘Yuan jin yue lai’ [From far and near it’s a pleasure that you come].
Materials:porcelain
Technique:glazed, underglazed,
Subjects:bird boat/ship fish landscape,flower
Dimensions:Diameter: 46 centimetres Height: 9 centimetres
Description:
‘Swatow-type’ dish with underglaze blue decoration. This large heavily potted dish has rounded sides and a broad tapering gritty foot. Inside it is painted in murky shades of blue beneath a greyish glaze. A marine rose radiating lines is in the centre, with two large cargo ships under sail on either side and with a giant fish-like sea monster half-emerging from waves below and an idealized landscape with two ornamental gates in the foreground and mountain peaks in the distance. Surrounding this in the cavetto are cartouches framing emblematic patterns in opposite pairs, the most elaborate ones flanked by exotic parrots with long tails. Spaces between are ornamented with tasselled hangings on a ground of reserved white crosses on a blue ground. Outside stylized plants and clouds are hastily depicted. The base is covered with grit and is unusual as it has been flattened in a disc shape in the centre.
IMG
Comments:Harrison-Hall 2001:The ships depicted here are not Chinese junks but Portuguese trading vessels. Each ship has a double set of sails and two masts with details such as the rigging and flags clearly visible. The designs in the cavetto relate to European coats of arms and may be interpreted as pseudo-armorial devices. It is likely that the dish’s design originated in a foreign print, probably a map or a study of boats at sea. It is quite common for sixteenth-century maps to include pictures of sea monsters and seascapes with ships tossed on high seas.This elaborate dish is not unique and comparable examples survive in several public and private collections, with minor variations. A large shard from this type of vessel, collected in Indonesia, is in the Princessehof Museum, Leeuwarden. Two similar whole dishes, one with stellar constellations around the central marine rose, the other showing a whole fish-monster, are also in the Princessehof Museum, Leeuwarden. Another, from a private Lisbon collection, was included in a recent exhibition in the Musee Guimet, Paris. A further example is in the private Mottahedeh Collection. In the Idemitsu Museum of Arts, Tokyo, there is an overglazed enamelled dish with a comparable design but with the addition of four characters in individual roundels in the cavetto, grouped in opposing pairs. These read ‘Yuan jin yue lai’ [From far and near it’s a pleasure that you come].
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