Ming Porcelain Dish for the Japanese Market from The Peony Pavilion Collection

A Transitional Porcelain Dish Made for the Japanese Market, Jingdezhen Kilns, Ming Dynasty, Tianqi 1621 – 1628 or Chongzhen Period 1628 – 1644. This Ming porcelain Mukozuke (literally meaning beyond server) dish was made in for the Kaiseki meal that accompanies the Japanese tea ceremony. The hexagonal shallow form has indented corners with a flat broad rim painted in underglaze blue. This blue underglaze decoration is reminiscent of Kraak porcelain, this is perhaps unsurprising as Kraak ware was popular in 17th century Japan. Indeed, recent research has shown that some kilns in Jingdezhen produced porcelain for the Japanese market also made Kraak ware. The overglaze colours consist of a thickly applied translucent green enamel, a similar but paler green, there is also mustard yellow and aubergine. The red and black decoration is different, it sits flat on the surface of the porcelain, perhaps suggesting little or no glass binder was used. The central decoration depicts a pomegranate branch with three ripe pomegranates bursting open, their seeds of differing colours. A cicada and a grasshopper are feasting on the sweet open fruit. The cavetto has three cartouches decorated with flowering plants in enamel, colours set against a blue diaper patterns of cash (coins, meaning wealth), swastika (conducive to well-being) and a honeycomb design. The other three inverted triangular panels show a solitary seated figure on a promontory with a landscape in underglaze blue. Only one of the dishes from this group of six has an apocryphal Chenghua mark (Ming dynasty 1465-1487).

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