A Very Rare Ming Blue and White Kraakware Trapezoidal Shaped Porcelain Jar.

A Very Rare Ming Blue and White Kraakware Porcelain Trapezoidal Shaped flask or Jar, Jingdezhen Kilns, China c.1600 – 1630. Ming Kraak porcelain comes in many shapes and sizes, the most frequently encountered objects are dishes and bowls. The present example is of a form that I’ve not seen before, it makes me think of Islamic metal work, however I have not been able to find the prototype of this very rare piece. Both of the main panels are bas-relief moulded in the form of a flower, the blue and white design if of a leaf overlaying a double gourd vase entwined with ribbon. The sides are decorated with a bow and ribbons with what is perhaps a pearl on one side and three pearls on the other. The base is unglazed with rough scrapping marks where the based was pared down to make it flat, the sides of the base are chamfered with a blade. When the clay was considered to be ‘leather hard’, it would then be ‘biscuit fired’. After that it would be painted in dark blackish cobalt oxide, followed by glazing. Finally, it would be fired for the last time, the cobalt oxide would then gain its blue tones, the colour forever unchanged. The top has been replaced with hexagonal white metal supported by a circular flange, it also has a black lacquered mother-of-pearl hexagonal stopper. The mother-of-pearl inlaid decoration probably derives from abalone shell. The metal top and the stopper are 19th century, Chinese or Japanese. I have not seen this shape before.

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