Page 29 - 2007 JUne Tajan auction of Asian Art

This dish is quite remarkable in its wide rang of decorative elements and in the different hues of
blue with which the painter has played to enhance the design.

A few pieces of this type are known, some in Western collections (such as the British Museum
in London and the Union des Arts Décoratifs in Paris), but most of them belong to two large
collections of Chinese porcelain in the Middle East, the Ardebil Shrine in Iran and the Topkapi
Saray in Istanbul. And although all these pieces are quite similar, there are not two which are
exactly alike.

It can easily be seen on the five examples chosen here. They show, for one thing, how the cen-
tral design can play with the same decorative elements to obtain each time something different.
The cavetto alos varies, either treating a same pattern differently, such as the flowers petals
devoid of blue outline (TKS 15/148, British Museum and Arts Décoratifs, Inv. 7985), or chan-
ging the pattern itself, which can become a lotus scroll painted in blue on a white ground
(Ardebil 29.121). As for the rim, when it is not foliate, it often bears a diaper design (Ardebil
29.121). When it is foliate, a painted wave pattern is more frequently seen than the white floral
scrolls in raised relief on a blue ground (British Museum and TKS 15/1481). Of the latter, two
examples are shown (Arts Décoratifs, Inv. 7985 and Ardebil 29.128).

But in spite of their differences, it is more through their similarities that these pieces are remar-
kable. It seems undeniable that they all belong to the same group, to which obviously also
belongs our dish. This group has been dated by specialists to the mid-fourteenth century.

BIBLIOGRAPHIE :

T. Misugi, Chinese Porcelain Collections in the Near East, Topkapi and Ardebil,

Hong Kong University Press, 1981, 3 vol.

John A. Pope, Chinese Porcelain from the Ardebil Shrine,

Smithsonian Institution, Freer Gallery of Art, Washington, 1956.

John A. Pope, Fourteenth Century Blue and White, a Group of Chinese Porcelain in the

Topkapu Sarayi Müsezi, Istanbul.

Smithsonian Institution, Freer Gallery of Art, Washington, 1952.

J.-P. Desroches, Le jardin des porcelaines, ed. de la RMN, Paris, 1987

Catalogue de l’exposition au Musée Guimet, 5.11.1987/15.2.1988

The British Museum, Oriental Ceramics, The World’s Great Collections, vol. 5,

Kodansha, Tokyo, 1974.

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