Page 30 - Kraak Porcelain, Jorge Welsh

5 Dish

Ming dynasty, Wanli period
(- )
Chinese porcelain decorated
in underglaze cobalt blue
Diameter: . cm

A heavily potted dish with deep rounded sides, a broad Istanbul (inv. no. TKS / ) and the Santos Palace in
flat, up-turned rim and tall, tapering foot ring that slants
slightly inwards. It is painted in deep shades of cobalt Lisbon (inv. no. ).
blue, which darken in some areas to a blackish-blue,
beneath a blue-tinged glaze. The centre is decorated The underglaze blue decoration of these pieces
with ten spotted deer walking among rocks and grasses
beside a water fall and two hovering insects, beneath consists solely of a central medallion, of varying size,
ruyi-clouds from which emerge a pine tree branch and
the moon, all painted with fine lines, dots and washes of and a narrow scroll border encircling the foot ring.
paint within a medallion enclosed by a border formed
by a narrow band of alternating blue and white squares The central medallion of the Topkapi dish, of similar
and a band of ruyi-heads. The rounded sides and broad,
flat rim are un-moulded and plain white. The underside proportion to that seen on this dish, shows an elephant
is undecorated with the exception of a narrow band of
scrolls encircling the foot ring painted in underglaze supporting a trigram on its back among clouds reserved
cobalt blue. The glazed recessed base is slightly convex
and marked by radiating lines. It bears a fu gui jia qi (fine in white on a blue ground. It is enclosed by a narrow
vessel for wealth and honour) mark within a double
square written in underglaze cobalt blue. The edge of the scroll border similar to that seen above the foot ring
foot ring is finely cut and unglazed. Coarse sand from the
kiln adheres to some areas of the foot ring. of this dish. The Santos Palace dish is decorated with a

Dishes with deep rounded sides and un-moulded plain smaller central medallion enclosing two stylized cranes
white cavettos and up-turned rims, such as this example,
appear to be rare among the kraak porcelain assortment. flying amongst clouds and leafy scrolls also reserved in
Such pieces were made in small and medium sizes,
about and cm in diameter. Two examples of the white on blue.
smallest size are found in the Topkapi Saray Museum in
A closely related border to that enclosing the central

medallion of this dish, formed by a narrow band of

alternating blue and white squares and a band of ruyi-

heads, is shown on a fragment of a dish with flat, up-

turned rim recovered from the Dutch East Indiaman,

the Witte Leeuw ( ) (inv. no. ). Similar borders

are shown on the cavetto of dishes with up-turned rims

dating to the third quarter of the th century, such as

the examples in the British Museum in London ( cm

diam.) (inv. no. . +) and the Museum of East

Asian Art in Bath (inv. no. ). It also occurs

on the shoulder of a kraak pear-shaped bottle in the

Groninger Museum in Groningen (inv. no. - ).

This dish and the aforementioned example in the

Santos Palace demonstrate that some dishes of this type