Dish
Chinese
Description
Subject Matter:
A porcelain powder blue dish of the Kangxi reign (1662-1722) of the Qing dynasty (1644-1911).
Powder blue, soufflé blue, snowflake blue or xue hua lan (雪花篮), sprinkled blue or sa lan (洒蓝), fish-roe blue (鱼子绿), and blown blue or chuiqing (吹青) are all terms used to describe a subset of famille verte porcelains that are covered with a cobalt blue ground comprising of many layered dots of various sizes, creating gradations in color. It was produced at Jingdezhen (景德镇), Jiangxi (江西), China for a very short time during the Kangxi (康熙) reign (1661- 1722) of the Qing (清) dynasty (1644-1912), primarily from about 1700-1722. It is characterized by its rich, speckled cobalt underglaze surface covering the majority of porcelain vessel. Sometimes, reserves are masked off using paper as a resist, to keep some areas of the porcelain white. These areas may be decorated later with underglaze cobalt blue or underglaze copper red before glazing and firing, or possibly decorated with famille verte enamels and gilding after glazing and firing. The designs often featured scenes from classical literature, "five color blue" landscapes, birds and flowers, beautiful ladies, the Hundred Antiquities, and auspicious objects and divine beings. The multiple firings and costly materials made powder blue wares extremely expensive to produce.
Physical Description:
The interior of this thin porcelain, wide, and low saucer-shaped dish on a footring, is covered with sprayed powder blue underglaze with one large foliate-shaped reserve flanked by two smaller fan-shaped reserves and two smaller quatrilobed reserves, and covered in a clear glaze. All the reserves are painted with overglaze enamels to depict peonies, chrysanthemum and prunus sprays, the white exterior is painted with floral sprays, with underglaze blue double ring with central ruyi-shaped lingzhi mushroom mark to the base.
Part of a ten-piece garniture set which includes: jars, 1982/1.206A, 1982/1.206B, 1982/1.206C, 1982/1.207A, 1982/1.207B, and 1982/1.207C; vases, 1982/1.208, 1982/1.215, 1982/1.216, 1982/1.220; plates, 1982/1.212, 1982/1.213, and bowls 1982/1.221,1982/1.22.
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