A Transitional Porcelain Dish, Late Ming c.1630

A Ming Blue and White Porcelain Dish, Tianqi (1621-1627) or Chongzhen (1627-1644) dating to c.1630. This Transitional porcelain dish was made for the Japanese market and would have been used to serve food during the Tea Ceremony. It depicts a Chinese vessel navigating its way around jagged rocks, in the distance is a promontory with a two story building at the waters’ edge.

RESERVED

 

Condition
There is a fine rim crack c.25mm. There is a firing crack to the rim and pieces of kiln grit in the glaze. Typical rim fritting.
Size
Diameter : 20.7 cm (8 1/4 inches).
Provenance
The James Randolph Hillard MD Collection of Chinese Ceramics for the Japanese Market. Label to the base, Collection number 80.
Stock number
25175
£ 450
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Information

Ming Porcelain for Japan :
During the late Ming Period the Chinese made a large among of porcelain for the Japanese market, it was made from the Wanli period (1573-1620) and ended in the Chongzhen period (1628-1644), the main period of production being the 1620`2 and 1630`s. The porcelain objects produced were made especially for the Japanese market, both the shapes and the designs were tailored to Japanese taste, the production process too allowed for Japanese aesthetics to be included in the finished object. Its seams firing faults were added, repaired tears in the leather-hard body were too frequent to not, in some cases, be deliberate. These imperfections as well as the fritting Mushikui (insect-nibbled) rims and kiln grit on the footrims all added to the Japanese aesthetic. The shapes created were often expressly made for the Japanese tea ceremony meal, the Kaiseki, small dishes for serving food at the tea ceremony are the most commonly encountered form. Designs, presumably taken from Japanese drawings sent to China, are very varied, often using large amount of the white porcelain contrasting well with the asymmetry of the design.