Bowl with dense underglaze blue decoration. Porcelain. Jingdezhen, Jiangxi province 江西省, 景德鎮. Ming dynasty, Yongle period, AD140. On loan from Sir Percival David Foundation of Chinese Art. PDF B625 © Trustees of the British Museum

Height: 48 mm - Diameter: 130 mm. Shallow porcelain bowl. Underglaze blue with band of petal panels with flower heads and squared spirals. Inside decorated with bands of pendant tricorn elements, a band of scrolling flowers and a central roundel with four tricorns at right angles. 

As well as producing objects following the shapes of Middle Eastern dining utensils for the overseas market, Jingdezhen craftsmen made objects inspired by Middle Eastern forms and decoration to fulfil court demand for foreign ‘exotica’. This bowl has dense underglaze blue decoration based on Middle Eastern metalwork designs.

Bibliographic reference: Medley, Margaret, Illustrated Catalogue of Underglaze Blue and Copper Red Decorated Porcelains, London, University of London, Percival David Foundation of Chinese Art, School of Oriental and African Studies, 1976

Pierson, Stacey, Illustrated Catalogue of Underglaze Blue and Copper Red Decorated Porcelains in the Percival David Foundation of Chinese Art, London, University of London, Percival David Foundation of Chinese Art, School of Oriental and African Studies, 2004