Page 42 - Kraak Porcelain, Jorge Welsh
P. 42
16 Saucer dish
Ming dynasty, Wanli period
(- )
Chinese porcelain decorated
in underglaze cobalt blue
Diameter: cm
A large, heavily potted saucer dish with gently rounded The present saucer dish is an outstanding example of
sides and bracket-lobed rim and low, v-shaped foot ring
that slants slightly inwards. It is finely painted in two kraak porcelain, not only for the quality of its painted
contrasting shades of cobalt blue, which darken in some
areas to a blackish-blue, beneath a blue-tinged glaze. decoration, but also for the subject matter of its central
The centre is decorated with a large squirrel standing
on a rock and a crane flying towards it under a pine tree scene. This saucer dish is, to our knowledge, the only
with an overhanging branch, all delicately painted with
thin lines and washes of paint within an eight-pointed recorded example decorated with this naturalistic
bracket-lobed medallion surrounded by scale, trellis
and swastika-diaper patterns and encircled by thin and detailed representation of a squirrel and crane
double blue lines. The rounded sides are divided into
eight wide and narrow radiating panels. The wide panels in a landscape. Its unusually delicate depiction of the
are painted with birds perched on pomegranate and
peach fruiting branches, alternating with blossoming squirrel’s fur, with a multitude of short fine lines and
chrysanthemum flowers. The narrow panels are faintly
moulded and painted with strings of jewels and dots spots, relates closely to that of a large deer shown on the
alternately framed above and below by scale, trellis and
swastika-diaper patterns. The underside is painted in centre of a saucer dish with eight moulded panels on the
two contrasting shades of blue with eight bracket-lobed
panels alternately enclosing stylized lingzhi-fungus and cavetto and a bracket-lobed rim, which is in the Topkapi
peach sprays below jewels surrounded by four dots,
separated by narrow radiating panels painted with Saray Museum in Istanbul (inv. no. / ). Highly
vertical and curved horizontal lines. The recessed base is
slightly convex, marked by concentric grooves and fully stylized cranes also appear on a few finely painted kraak
glazed. Thick, coarse sand from the kiln adheres to the
low slanting foot ring. dishes that bear the egret mark, as evidenced in two
examples from private collections in the Netherlands.
Dishes with rounded sides and a broad flat, up-turned
bracket-lobed rim decorated with this rim border,
include the example discussed in the previous entry, an
example in the Topkapi Saray Museum in Istanbul (inv.
no. / ), one in the Sadberk Hanim Museum
in Istanbul (inv. no. . . - ), and another in the
Musée national Adrien Dubouché in Limoges (inv. no.
). The three latter examples have their sides and
broad rims moulded in relief. The Topkapi Saray dish
( cm diam.) is decorated in the centre with vases filled
with blossoming peonies, peacock feathers and lingzhi-
fungus and small pots with plants; the Sadberk Hanim
dish ( . cm diam.) with birds perched on a rock beside
large peony branches; the Adrien Dubouché example
