BA45
Deep bowl fluted in the form of a chrysanthemum, with ribbed slightly curved sides rising from a short foot-ring, painted in bright famille verte, gilt and powder-blue enamels, the interior of the bowl decorated with a central roundel containing a seascape with foaming waves, crustaceans and shells below misty clouds and the sun/moon is the sky, all within a frame of double blue circular lines, and below a band of large butterflies and flower-heads encircling the rim, the exterior sides with a complex border composed of four different decorative themes repeated on the opposing side, including a reverse decorated red-ground floral meander, antiques and precious objects, flowering branches with birds and butterflies in dark shades of blue and a powder-blue ground panel decorated in gilding with mountainous landscapes, the recessed glazed base painted with blue double circular lines.
Object number: BA45
Literature
An almost identical bowl is in the British Museum, Registration number: Franks.352, donated to the museum by Sir Augustus Wollaston Franks.
Another dish with the same type of pattern is illustrated in Christiaan J.A. Jörg, 'Famille Verte - Chinese Porcelain in Green Enamels', Groninger Museum, 2011, p. 58, pl 57, where Jörg describes how the different themes, the powder-blue, the underglaze blue and the overglaze iron-red and famille verte enamels "showcases the virtuosity of the porcelain producer, who used various decorative techniques in different media, for which three kiln firings were needed." (p. 58).
