BFE 16 A pair of blue and white bowls

明萬曆–天啟 青花雙龍搶珠紋碗一對

Wanli-Tianqi, c. 1600-1625

Each bowl is standing on a high foot, with rounded sides spreading towards the rim. The exteriors are painted in underglaze blue with scrolling morning glory, the four blooms supporting the characters fu, lu, wan and nian. Two double-line borders surround the mouth and foot. The interiors are painted in the cavetto with two striding dragons amidst flames, each chasing a flaming pearl, all below a floral scroll at the rim. The central panels are painted with a shou character surrounded by a wave border. The bases are painted with a double ring in underglaze blue.
14.8 cm diameter

The present pair of bowls is painted in a typical late Ming style. The design with dragons in the interior and four characters inscribed on the exterior is unusual. The five characters on each bowl, including the shou character in the interior, stand for ‘blessings, wealth and longevity for ten thousand years’, fu lu shou wan nian.

There is a possibility that this pair of bowls was formerly in a shipwreck, as the glaze is slightly degraded. Several bowls, with closely related dragons painted on the exterior and a similar floral border below the inside rim, were excavated from the ‘Wanli shipwreck’, dated circa 1625 (1).
Other bowls with dragons and phoenixes, with similar, but more primitive borders on the inner rim, were found in the ‘Hatcher Junk’, dated circa 1643. These borders are described by Sheaf and Kilburn as blobby-dot borders not found on earlier wares (2). The border on the present pair of bowls may therefore be a forerunner of Kangxi blobby-dot borders seen on early Kangxi porcelains (3).

Provenance: Formerly in Dutch Private collection

1. Sjostrand, S.,  and Lok Lok, S., The Wanli Shipwreckand its Ceramic Cargoe, Kuala Lumpur  2007, fig. 55 and Serial No. 6018
2. Sheaf., C., and Kilburn R., The Hatcher Porcelain Cargoes- The Complete Record, Oxford 1988, pls. 38,39
3. Butler, M.,  and Wang, Q., Seventeenth Century Jingdezhen Porcelain from the Shanghai Mseum and The Butler Collections- Beauty's Enchantment, Shanghai 2006, pl.82

BFE 16 明萬曆–天啟 青花雙龍搶珠紋碗一對
時代：明 萬曆至天啟，約1600至1625年。
特徵：一碗外壁書「福」、「祿」二字，另一碗則書「萬」、「年」二字。兩碗內均描繪雙龍搶珠紋，圍繞著碗心的「壽」字。
尺寸：直徑14.8公分。
來源：原荷蘭私人收藏。