dish BM-Franks.1670

Period:Yuan dynasty Production date:1330-1368 (circa)
Materials:porcelain
Technique:glazed, underglazed,
Subjects:flower lotus
Dimensions:Diameter: 45.80 centimetres Height: 07.60 centimetres Height: 7.60 centimetres Weight: 04.15 kilograms

Description:
Large serving dish with bracket-lobed edge painted in underglaze blue and with reserved decoration. This large serving dish has rounded sides and an upturned flattened rim with a thickened bracket-lobed edge. Inside it is painted with concentric bands of decoration combining painting in underglaze blue on white and white reserved on a blue ground. In the centre are a peony flower, bud and foliage reserved in white on a blue ground. It is framed by an eight-lobed border, surrounding which are chrysanthemums reserved in white on a blue ground within a bracket-lobed frame. A further bracket-lobed frame contains a pattern of dense blue spirals. In the cavetto are eight stylized lotus reserved in white on a blue ground and the rim is painted with white-crested waves. Outside it is decorated with peony scrolls and the base, which is unglazed, is cream-coloured with orange-brown flecks of iron impurities.
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Comments:Harrison-Hall 2001:From excavated shards we know that similar heavily potted dishes were made at Hutian in Jingdezhen in the Yuan period. Made for sale in the Near East, this type of large dish was suited to serving Middle Eastern cuisine. Although there are many dishes of similar shape in the Ardebil shrine, there is none identical. Large serving dishes of this shape were also cast in bronze in China in the Yuan era for the domestic market. In contrast to the porcelain serving dishes, few of these metal-work dishes survive. However, an example decorated in high relief with flowers and a phoenix and with a bracket-lobed rim was acquired for the Museum by Professor Jessica Rawson (BM 1993.10-5.1, diameter 54 cm).