Small porcelain flowers bowl with lobed sides. Porcelain with underglaze cobalt-blue decoration. Jingdezhen, Jiangxi province 江西省, 景德鎮. Ming dynasty, about AD1403–35. On loan from Sir Percival David Foundation of Chinese Art. PDF B672 © Trustees of the British Museum

Height: 20 mm. Diameter: 85 mm. Underglaze blue with flower spray in each lobe, both inside and outside, and a central floral roundel inside. Each lobe defined by single blue line.

Potters painted this porcelain dish with underglaze blue flowers. 朱棣 Zhu Di (AD 1360–1424) and his grandson 朱瞻基 Zhu Zhanji (AD 1399–1435) ruled China as the Yongle and Xuande emperors. During their reigns the imperial kilns at Jingdezhen flourished.

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