An Underglaze-blue Porcelain Dish with Deer Design, Late Ming dynasty, Late 16th-early 17th century. Diameter: 20.3 cm; Height: 3.4 cm. © 2024 Kaikodo

The small, thinly potted dish was wheel thrown and pressed over a mould to produce a double row of multiple lobes or flutes in the cavetto, the lip rim finished with gentle scallops corresponding to the fluting, the wide flat base enclosed within a low v-shaped slightly inturned foot, the unglazed foot rim with a modicum of grit adhering and with some fritting to the lip rim. The focus of the design is a pair of deer within a loosely executed landscape of vague hillocks and foliage. One deer turns its head back as it moves forward, gazing at the second deer following behind, the bright cobalt blue brushed on in fluid washes, consistent in color throughout, the motifs enhanced with lineament, in places as brief outlines, in others as decorative or descriptive curved or straight comb-like lines. The flutes were each further defined with pencil- thin outlines and each completed with a thick blue stripe down its center. A double line circles the exterior of the foot while a loose scroll circles the foot at the base of the exterior wall. The glaze is clear, smooth and bright.