Sold Ceramics - Sold Shipwreck Porcelains - Unidentified Shipwreck wares - Page 1

Object 2011009

Dish

China

c.1625

Height 35 mm (1.37 inch), diameter of rim 220 mm (8.66 inch), diameter of footring 115 mm (4.53 inch), weight 294 grams (10.37 ounce (oz.))

Dish on footring, flat rim with slightly scalloped edge. Some kiln sand adhering to the footring. Decorated in underglaze blue. In the centre medallion two deer - with a fungus and an abstract motif which may be the peach fruit - in-between a landscape with rocks, plants and a pine tree encircled by a double band. The sides and rim with large panels filled with peach and narrow panels filled with dots. On the reverse large panels filled with dots.

According to Rinaldi this dish can be classified as a Border V dish. Border V is characterized by large segments separated by narrow ones. The decoration on the border is less crowded than on other groups. Each large section usually contains a dainty floral or fruit spray or insects, and allows plenty of undecorated space around each design. In the narrow sections there are only dots or a thinly-drawn knotted ribbon. In contrast to the airy border, the central medallion is rather crowded. The underside, following the inside pattern, is divided into large sections with symbols or jewels. and narrow segments with lingzhi. (Rinaldi 1989, pp.88-91)

The deer is said to be the only animal that can find the 'lingzhi fungus', together with the pine tree they represent longevity. The decoration is rather crudely executed with bold outlines and careless fill-in. It is likely that that these dishes are those referred to in old Dutch records as 'badly painted crude ware'. Volker suggest that it was a second grade Jingdezhen ware. (Sjostrand & Lok Lok 2007, pp.208-213)

Interesting details on this dish are the small size of the base compared with earlier examples, the blue is dull and almost shadeless and the clearly shown impressions left by cloth imprinted under the glaze in the central medallion.

Most of the dish's glaze has worn of, it was, most likely, part of a shipwrecks cargo, possibly the Wanli shipwreck, c.1625. On the base the residue of a (silver) label, now removed.

For identically decorated dishes, please see:

For identically decorated dishes found in a cesspit of in use between 1600 and 1625 of a building on the Oudezijds Voorburgwal in Amsterdam and in a cesspit in use between 1620 and 1630 of a building on the Staalstraat in Amsterdam and in please see:

Chinese and Japanese porcelain for the Dutch Golden Age, (J. van Campen & T. Eliëns ed., Waanders Publishers in collaboration with Rijksmuseum Amsterdam, Gemeentemuseum Den Haag, Groninger Museum, Keramiekmuseum Princessehof Leeuwarden, Zwolle 2014, p.53, Fig. 1 & p.70, Fig. 20.

Condition: firing flaws to the centre, the base and the rim, various glaze rough spots to the rim.

References:

Rinaldi 1989, pp.100-105 & Pl.75

Sjostrand & Lok Lok 2007, pp.208-213.

Campen & Eliëns 2014, Fig. 1 & Fig.20

Price: Sold.