A blue and white bowl, Ming dynasty (1368-1644).
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Rounded sides on a short footrim, decorated with roundels with figures, all against a ground almost covered in chinese characters. The interior decorated with Sholaou riding on his crane above swirling water. Diameter 21.5 cm.
Chips, wear. Firingspots. Rim slightly polished.
Exhibitions
Compare another bowl like this in the Collection of the British Musuem, Registration number
Franks.760. Donated by: Sir Augustus Wollaston Franks.
Literature
Harrison-Hall 2001 / Catalogue of Late Yuan and Ming Ceramics in the British Museum (12:20).
He notes that; Although this type of bowl may well have been made for the domestic market, it was also exported to Europe and the Near East. Shards from similar bowls have been found among the cargo of the Sao Gongalo, wrecked in 1630 on a reef near Port Elizabeth in Plettenberg Bay off the coast of South Africa. Such bowls are also depicted in Dutch still-life oil paintings, such as those by Jacques Linard, painted in 1627 and 1638 respectively. Persian bowls with similar designs were made too, indicating that bowls of the present type were also sent to the Near East: an example is in the Princessehof Museum, Leeuwarden, Netherlands (OKS 1967.10). Other Chinese bowls of this type are in the Flehite Museum, Amersfoort, Netherlands, and in the Princessehof Museum.