Browse: 105 objects
Blue-and-white vase with floral decoration
- loan
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Details
- Associated place
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Asia › China › Jiangxi province (place of creation)
- Date
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mid-15th century
Ming Dynasty (1368 - 1644)
- Material and technique
- porcelain, thrown, with underglaze painting in cobalt-blue
- Dimensions
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15 cm (height)
9.6 cm (diameter)
at foot 6.2 cm (diameter)
- Material index
- Technique index
- Object type index
- No. of items
- 1
- Credit line
- Lent by the Sir Alan Barlow Collection Trust.
- Accession no.
- LI1301.147.1
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Further reading
University of Sussex, and Arts and Humanities Research Council, The Barlow Collection, supervised by Regina Krahl, Maurice Howard, and Aiden Leeves (Sussex: University of Sussex, 2006), no. C123
Glossary (2)
porcelain, underglaze painting
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porcelain
Ceramic material composed of kaolin, quartz, and feldspar which is fired to a temperature of c.1350-1400⁰c. The resulting ceramic is vitreous, translucent, and white in colour.
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underglaze painting
Painting applied to ceramic material before a transparent, or monochrome or coloured glaze for Islamic objects, is applied. The technique was initially developed in China.
Location
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- currently in research collection
Objects are sometimes moved to a different location. Our object location data is usually updated on a monthly basis. Contact the Jameel Study Centre if you are planning to visit the museum to see a particular object on display, or would like to arrange an appointment to see an object in our reserve collections.
Publications online
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The Barlow Collection
These vases, although only slightly later in date than the dishes, [LI1301.144] and [LI1301.384] in the Barlow Collection, are much inferior in quality, which may reflect production by a lesser manufactory or else, the general decline in porcelain quality during the so-called ‘interregnum period’ of the three short reigns Zhengtong (1436 – 1449), Jingtai (1450–1456) and Tianshun (1457–1464), when porcelain production was not controlled by the court.
The vases taper from a rounded shoulder towards a high flaring foot, and have a short narrow neck. They are somewhat coarsely made and painted with a fairly thick brush in a soft underglaze-blue, with a ruyi border at the shoulder, a broad peony scroll with three blooms and sketchy foliage round the body and a band of sketchy cloud motifs at the foot, all enclosed between double line borders. The base and inside of the foot are unglazed and have red earth adhering, the glaze is somewhat dull and crazed, giving the pieces an off-white appearance.
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