Ewer with stylised lotus scroll. Porcelain with underglaze copper-red decoration. Height: 325 mm. Width: 252 mm. Depth: 205 mm. Jingdezhen, Jiangxi province 江西省, 景德鎮. Ming dynasty, Hongwu period, AD 1368–98. On loan from Sir Percival David Foundation of Chinese Art. PDF A696. British Museum © The Trustees of the British Museum

Porcelain ewer of yuhuchun form, with high strap handle and long spout attached by a cloud-shaped strut to the neck. Underglaze red with scrolling flowers around body. Bands of squared spirals, overlapping leaves and classic scrolls on neck.

Copper oxide pigment, used to create underglaze red designs, is extremely difficult to fire successfully at the high temperatures required for porcelain production. The pigment is more volatile and harder to fire effectively than cobalt oxide, which was used to create blue designs. If the process was successful, as here, copper oxide could fire bright red but if not, it fired pale liverish red, grey or almost black. Potters made far greater quantities of monochrome red and underglaze red wares in the Hongwu period (AD 1368–98) than in the Yuan dynasty (AD 1279–1368). Whereas in the Yuan dynasty they were experimental wares, in the early Ming dynasty they were produced on a larger scale but were still rare. Originally this ewer would have had a domed porcelain cover with a lotus bud finial and a loop to marry up with the ring on top of the handle. Details such as the fine raised vertical rib down the handle and the three studs at its base refer to the metalwork version of which the porcelain is a copy. Archaeologists excavated similar ewers with underglaze cobalt blue decoration at Dongmentou東門頭, Zhushan 珠山 in Jingdezhen in 1994. 

Bibliographic reference: Medley, Margaret, Volume 7: Percival David Foundation of Chinese Art, 7 of 12, Tokyo, Kodansha ltd, 1975

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 

Scott, Rosemary, Imperial Taste - Chinese Ceramics from the Percival David Foundation of Chinese Art, Los Angeles County Museum of Art and Percival David Foundation of Chinese Art, 1989 

Pierson, Stacey, Percival David Foundation of Chinese Art: A Guide to the Collection, London, SOAS, Univeristy of London, 2002 

Scott, Rosemary, Percival David Foundation of Chinese Art: A Guide to the Collection, London, SAOS, Univeristy of London, 1989 

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 

Krahl, Regina; Harrison-Hall, Jessica, Chinese Ceramics: Highlights of the Sir Percival David Collection, London, BMP, 2009