QBW7 A “Master of the Rocks” dish, early Kangxi, Qing Dynasty

Description

Description:   Chinese blue and white dish decorated with a Scholar and his attendant facing a grandiose mountainous lake landscape . It is painted in the “Master of the Rocks style”, and surely one of the better examples. The dish is sturdily potted with steep rising sides and an everted rim, which was bound in metal. The metal was in bad conditions and it has been removed. The fact that all the few dishes of this shape, that we are aware of, are fitted with a metal ring, is suggesting that most probably they were indeed meant as brush washers. Early Kangxi period.

Dating:  17^th century, early Kangxi period, Qing dynasty.

Size:  25.3 cm diameter

Provenance:  Antiquarian market

References:  See, in the last picture, a page of the catalog of a Bonham’s auction. On the left, a dish with the metal rim and the same shape of this one; on the right, a Master of the Rock dish.

Notes:  The term ‘Master of the Rocks’ was introduced by the collector and author Gerald Reitlinger, and describes the distinctive style of depicting landscapes on a diagonal, with thick curvilinear strokes providing the outlines and thinner, parallel contours used to create the depth of the rockwork. Such landscapes represent one of the most important developments in ceramic decoration of the seventeenth century.