Blue-and-white kendi with crayfish, 2nd half of the 16th century, Ming Dynasty (1368 - 1644), Jingdezhen kilns for South-east Asia market, porcelain, with modelled decoration and underglaze painting in cobalt-blue, 22 x 15.5 x 14.5 cm max. (height x width x depth), depth at base 22 x 15.5 x 10.6 cm max. (height x width x depth). Gift of Gerald Reitlinger, 1978. EA1978.1936 © Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford

This vessel form was favoured in southeast Asia, and often exported there from China. 

Bibliography: Oxford: Ashmolean Museum, 18 July-13 September 1981, and London: Sotheby Parke Bernet, 1981, Eastern Ceramics and Other Works of Art from the Collection of Gerald Reitlinger: Catalogue of the Memorial Exhibition, Deborah Willis, ed. (Oxford: Ashmolean Museum and London: Sotheby Parke Bernet, 1981), no. 33 on p. 29, illus. p. 29