dish BM-Franks.272.+

Period:Ming dynasty Production date:1620-1640 (circa)
Materials:porcelain
Technique:glazed, underglazed,
Subjects:horse/ass flaming jewel dragon
Dimensions:Diameter: 40.50 centimetres Height: 10.60 centimetres Weight: 2.86 kilograms

Description:
‘Swatow-type’ porcelain dish with underglaze blue decoration. Heavily potted and slightly warped, this dish has flared sides and a thick tapering foot to which grit and sand from the kiln floor have adhered during firing. Two dragons chasing each other around a flaming pearl are hastily executed in sharp calligraphic brushwork in a central medallion. Surrounding this are five radiating panels framing images of horses flying through the skies, alternately looking forward and back. Further wide panels with blue wave grounds encircle the rim with bracket-lobed cartouches alternately containing Arabic inscriptions or an image of a foreigner dancing with a fan. These are separated by narrow panels showing auspicious knots. The reverse is painted with three abstracted curls of blue and a blue ring around the rim and above the foot. Here the two alternating Arabic inscriptions around the rim are written in a clumsy cursive Arabic script which reads ‘God who gives health’ and ‘God the healer’.
IMG


Comments:Harrison-Hall 2001:Inscribed ‘Swatow-type’ porcelains are quite rare but examples with both Chinese and Arabic calligraphic inscriptions survive. There can be little doubt that this dish was made for export. Several other identical dishes have been found in Indonesia. For example, one with the same inscriptions, now in the Princessehof Museum, Leeuwarden, was collected in Indonesia. Another identical dish, also with the same inscriptions, was found in Ternate, Halmatera, Indonesia, and is in the private collection of Mr M. R. Indra Ahadian. Large numbers of Muslims were involved in China’s seaborne trade, shipping goods from coastal towns to many different countries and islands in South-east Asia.