Dish

Dish: large export type, everted rim.
Clay: white porcelain, heavily potted; burned brick-red where exposed in circular scar from firing stand.
Glaze: fine green celadon, matte, footrim and base covered except for bare red ring.
Decoration: moulded, carved and appliqued under the glaze; floral and scroll motifs; eleven five-petalled florets sprigged on rim; freely carved scroll (eight units) in cavetto. Peony in moulded relief in cneter bottom within a band of carved curved fluting.

Historical period(s)
Yuan dynasty, 14th century
Medium
Stoneware with celadon glaze
Style
Longquan ware
Dimensions
H x Diam: 7.5 × 37.1 cm (2 15/16 × 14 5/8 in)
Geography
China, Zhejiang province, Longquan, Probably Dayao kiln
Credit Line
Purchase — Charles Lang Freer Endowment
Collection
Freer Gallery of Art Collection
Accession Number
F1977.10
On View Location
Currently not on view
Classification(s)
Ceramic, Vessel
Type

Dish

Keywords
China, flower, green glaze, Longquan ware, peony, stoneware, Yuan dynasty (1279 - 1368)
Provenance
Provenance research underway.
Description

Dish: large export type, everted rim.
Clay: white porcelain, heavily potted; burned brick-red where exposed in circular scar from firing stand.
Glaze: fine green celadon, matte, footrim and base covered except for bare red ring.
Decoration: moulded, carved and appliqued under the glaze; floral and scroll motifs; eleven five-petalled florets sprigged on rim; freely carved scroll (eight units) in cavetto. Peony in moulded relief in cneter bottom within a band of carved curved fluting.

Label

This large, sturdy dish may have been produced at the Dayao kiln in Longquan, a source of many celadon bowls and dishes during the Yuan dynasty (1279-1368). Dayao products were widely exported; dishes like this one are found in the collection of the Topkapi Saray Museum in Istanbul. The size of the dish suits Persian culinary traditions better than Chinese practices, suggesting that it was intended for export.

The belief that the dead should be interred with objects to provide for their needs in the afterlife encouraged inexpensive ceramic reproductions of precious goods, especially bronze and lacquer vessels, to be made for entombment. Some celadon-glazed ceramics recovered from tombs represent special adaptations of everyday pots, such as storage vessels, but objects for burial are often decorated with cosmological symbols.

Collection Area(s)
Chinese Art
Web Resources
Google Cultural Institute
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