Large serving dish with flowers and grapes, Ming dynasty, Yongle reign, AD1403–1424, Jingdezhen, Jiangxi province. Porcelain with underglaze cobalt-blue decoration. Sir Percival David Foundation of Chinese Art, PDF.685 © 2017 Trustees of the British Museum

Porcelain dish with flat mouth rim. There is a band of waves in underglaze cobalt blue on the rim, scrolling flowers and leaves in the cavetto and three bunches of grapes, vines and leaves in the centre. 

Potters working at Jingdezhen used a blue-generating cobalt pigment imported from the Middle East or Central Asia at this time. It diffuses in patches through the transparent glaze and after cooling appears black where it has burnt through the glaze and pale blue where it is thin. Serving dishes of this type were exported to Southeast Asia, India and the Middle East. These dishes were more suited to foreign dining than Chinese cuisine, which requires a variety of smaller bowls and containers. This example is decorated with a grapevine design in the centre.