Porcelain with cobalt pigment under colorless glaze
Dimensions:
H x Diam: 8 × 45.5 cm (3 1/8 × 17 15/16 in)
Style:
Jingdezhen ware
Type:
Vessel
Origin:
Jingdezhen, Jiangxi province, China
Date:
mid 14th century
Period:
Yuan dynasty
Description:
Dish with flattened rim. Blue-and-white.
Clay: fine white porcelain.
Glaze: transparent and colorless
Foot: Unglazed
Decoration: in underglaze blue, a mandarin fish among water weeds in center; lotus scroll in and outside cavetto; wave pattern on rim. Unglazed base.
(L.A. Cort, November 1991) In decoration "large" is changed to "mandarin" in describing the fish.
(Jan Stuart, 6/3/2020) I added "colorless" to the glaze description and added "Foot: unglazed."
Label:
A mandarin fish, identified by its spiny fin and protruding jaw, swims through a dense growth of eelgrass, duckweed and clover fern. A lotus scroll twines endlessly in the well, and a diaper pattern border the flat rim. The division of the surface into concentric bands of disparate patterns reflects the decoration on Islamic metalwares.
Collection:
Freer Gallery of Art Collection
Exhibition History:
Chinese Ceramics: 13th–14th Century (December 20, 2014 to January 3, 2016)
Iraq and China: Ceramics, Trade, and Innovation (December 4, 2004 to July 17, 2005)
Crosscurrents in Chinese and Islamic Ceramics (March 1, 1996 to July 1, 1997)
On the River (April 01, 1995 to January 23, 1996)
Chinese Ceramics (March 15, 1982 to July 10, 1986)
A Decade of Discovery: Selected Acquisitions 1970-1980 (November 9, 1979 to May 22, 1980)
Chinese Ceramics (April 11, 1978 to September 4, 1980)
