Bowl. Porcelain with incised and anhua decoration and transparent tianbai glaze. Jingdezhen, Jiangxi province江西省, 景德鎮. Ming dynasty, Yongle mark and period, AD 1403–1424. On loan from Sir Percival David Foundation of Chinese Art. PDF 400 © Trustees of the British Museum

Height: 66 mim. Porcelain bowl with wide mouth, small base, slightly rounded sides and slightly spreading lip with six foil edge. There are two 'anhua' slip five claw dragons chasing pearls under the glaze on the interior. The base is glazed.

The Yongle emperor introduced a four-character reign mark to porcelain, reflecting the close imperial supervision of production at Jingdezhen. The seal script characters 永樂年製 (Yongle nian zhi ‘made in the Yongle reign’) are framed by a double circle. Technically accomplished potters also made an anhua (hidden or secret) design of two five-clawed dragon around the inner wall. Chinese archaeologists have shown these delicately potted bodiless bowls were fired between AD1403 and 1412.

Bibliographic reference Hobsob, Robert L, A Catalogue of Chinese Pottery and Porcelain in the Collection of Sir Percival David Bt., F.S.A., London, The Stourton Press, 1934