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Dish
unknown - Enlarge image
Dish
- Place of origin:
China (made)
- Date:
1573-1620 (made)
- Artist/Maker:
unknown (production)
- Materials and Techniques:
Porcelain, painted with underglaze blue
- Credit Line:
Given by Mr Sydney Vacher
- Museum number:
C.464-1918
- Gallery location:
Ceramics Study Galleries, Asia & Europe, room 137, case G, shelf 3
This dish is painted with underglaze blue, the gazelles in the centre seeming to float against the background of blossoming plum trees. It has a wavy rim decorated with birds and flowers. It is an example of reasonable quality export ware displaying standard patterns, of the type known as kraak porcelain. There are several explanations for the meaning behind the use of the Dutch word kraak for this type of late Ming blue-and-white porcelain. One is that it derives from the name of the Portuguese vessels (carracks) that carried the porcelain from the East to Europe. Others include the suggestions that it is from the Dutch verb to break (kraken), or that it derives from the name for shelves on which blue-and-white porcelain was displayed in the Dutch province of Friesland.
