Dish

Dish; large with low foot; rim chipped at places; six spur-marks inside foot-ring.
Clay: white, fairly soft.
Glaze: transparent.
Decoration: underglaze cobalt blue painting; dancing woman in landscape in center; incised decoration in cavetto; blue border on rim; sixteen panels outside with flower sprays alternating with stylized tassel-marks.

See additional Description, see Comment 2.

The central medallion of this blue-and-white plate represents a female figure placed in a landscape. She holds an empty wine bottle by the neck in one hand and with the other she beckons, tilting her head. Clusters of leaves and blossoms appear on either side of the figure while a plump bird perches on one of the branches on the right. Several floral elements hang overhead, suggesting that the figure is surrounded by foliage. The medallion is enclosed by a scalloped border.
The cavetto has an incised frieze consisting of a series of spade-shaped leaves filled with blossoms. A thin blue band accentuates the rim.
The exterior reveals eight lotus panels, decorated with floral sprays and seperated by vertical units containing so-called “tassel-marks.”
The exaggeration of the hand of the figure, particularly the extended index finger, is a feature seen in late Safavid paintings. The theme of a figure in a landscape is also found on contemporary blue-and-white Iranian wares. Stylized lotus panels alternating with “tassel-marks” are also among the common decorative elements of this group of wares but are often seen on the inner surfaces of the plates (Lane, Later Islamic Pottery, pls. 71A, 73A and 78B). This convention is based on late Ming examples and several comparable pieces can be found in the Ardabil collection (J.A. Pope, Chinese Porcelains, pls. 102-104).
The Freer plate with its motifs outlined in dark-blue and filled in with varying intensities of the same color belongs to a particular type attributed to Kirman or Meshhed. These wares are underglaze painted in blue and imitate the late Ming style. They are predominantly decorated with stylized landscape motifs executed in a sketchy manner and often include an incised and molded cavetto around the central medallion. The six spurmarks on the base of this plate suggest that it was fired on a support, a practice begun in the eighteenth century according to Arthur Lane (Later Islamic Pottery, p.97). With its white body, slightly opacified glaze and underglaze painting, this example is fairly successful in its attempt to imitate Far Eastern porcelains.