Dish with six-petalled flower design and floral scroll on cavetto
Vietnam, probably Hai D’uong Province
Not on view
This dish, decorated in cobalt on a white slip and immersed in a translucent glaze, is typical of the Hoi An shipwreck cargo, salvaged near Cu Lao Cham island, offshore from Da Nang, central Vietnam. It is characterized by freely drawn brushwork that displays all the hallmarks of mass production, a skilled hand executing the underglaze blue designs with a practiced confidence. Technically the Vietnamese kilns never produced true porcelain but rather a high fired stoneware. The discovery of the Hoi An shipwreck in the late 1990s demonstrated the massive scale of Vietnamese glazed ceramic production at its peak in the early 16th century.
This artwork is meant to be viewed from right to left. Scroll left to view more.