Dish, painted enamels on copper, Guangzhou, China, ca. 1700-before 1853

Dish with a raised lip with an exposed copper rim. The centre of the dish is decorated with a pair of dragons chasing a yellow flaming pearl amid stylised cloud or flame designs in pink and white. The dragon on the left has a light green body and a pink belly and mouth, the dragon on the right has a pink body with a green belly and mouth. The eyes, scales, manes, teeth and claws of both dragons are outlined in black. The whole design is set against a black ground, all in painted enamel. The design of the dragons at the centre of the dish is separated from the interior of the rim by a white band with a thick blue stripe through its centre and thin pink lines on its interior and exterior borders. The interior of the rim is decorated with five pink bats flying amid pink, blue and green auspicious clouds set against a yellow ground. The bats are depicted with thin black outlines that describe their bodies, wings and faces. Each bat is in a distinctive pose. There is a large area of damage to the painted enamel in the lower area of the interior of the dish, showing the copper body beneath the enamel.

Purchased from the Bandinel collection

Purchased from the Bandinel Collection, accessioned in 1853. This acquisition information reflects that found in the Asia Department registers, as part of a 2022 provenance research project.

Painted enamels of this kind were commonly known in English as 'Canton enamel', after the main centre of their production in South China. They were popular in the 18th and 19th centuries. These copper wares were also produced in Beijing for imperial consumption. In Chinese they were referred to as 'foreign porcelain' (yangci 洋瓷).

563-1853