Page 56 - Kraak Porcelain, Jorge Welsh

34 Bowl or klapmuts

Ming dynasty, Wanli/Tianqi
period ( - ),
ca. -
Chinese porcelain decorated
with underglaze cobalt blue
Height: . cm; diameter: cm

A small, thinly potted bowl with shallow rounded sides, and white porcelain at the kilns in Jingdezhen by the
a flat up-turned rim with a bracket-lobed edge and
low, v-shaped foot ring that slants slightly inwards. It is third quarter of the th century, as suggested by two
painted in deep shades of cobalt blue, darkening in some
areas to a blackish-blue, beneath a brilliant blue-tinged examples in the Topkapi Saray Museum in Istanbul
glaze. The central medallion is delicately painted with
a grasshopper on a rock beside large peony flowers and (inv. nos. / and / ). These bowls
other flowering plants beneath a ruyi-cloud. The well
and rim are divided into four wide and narrow radiating show only slight di erences in form to the kraak bowl
panels outlined in blue. The wide panels are faintly
moulded with bracket-lobed panels, each alternately discussed here, the most noticeable being the narrower
enclosing single peach sprays and flower sprays, and
surmounted by an elongated monster mask. The narrow and flatter up-turned rim. The decorative motifs of the
panels are moulded with vertical bands and decorated
with three pending ribbons. The underside of the cavetto rim of the kraak bowls are directly copied. For instance,
is decorated with four bracket-lobed panels enclosing
jewels and four dots, each separated by a narrow the continuous peony scroll border painted on the rim
radiating panel painted with a thick line. The underside
of the rim is decorated with three stylized flower heads and the stylized flower head with scrolling leaf motif
with long scrolling leaves, two of them separated by dots.
The recessed base is marked by radiating ribbed lines found underneath the rim of some bowls are identical
and is glazed. Coarse sand from the kiln has adhered to
minute areas of the foot ring and cavetto. to those shown on the Topkapi Saray examples (see

It was traditionally believed that the form of this entry no. for a kraak example of this type).
type of bowl was ordered especially to suit the Dutch
market from the early th century onwards. However, The term klapmutsen, referring to shallow bowls with
it appears to have already been produced in fine blue
flat, up-turned rims, appeared in th century invoices

or shipping lists of the Dutch East India Company ( ).

The earliest reference discovered so far is a written

document, dated Patani, June th , where ‘…

large fine bowls or clapmutsen and some small ones…’

are mentioned. The name, klapmutsen, derives from a

commonly used hat in early th century Holland with

an up-turned brim made out of wool or beaver felt.

Fragments of this type of kraak bowl, or klapmuts,

have been excavated at the Dongfeng Ceramics Factory

kiln site originally located within the provincial kiln

zone in the late Ming dynasty and now under the

jurisdiction of Zhoulukou Street in the Zhushan district

of Jingdezhen. These bowls were made in a number of

sizes, ranging from to cm in diameter. The smaller