Lot Essay
Cinese blue and white porcelain was highly valued in India, and was imported for the Imperial court and the luxury market. It has been assumed that these Chinese examples provided an impetus for indigenous potters to produce similar articles for the sub-Imperial market; very few of these pieces have in fact appeared. Examples of Persian ceramics copying and modifying Chinese patterns are known, and the relative distance of the style of this dish from a Chinese original may suggest that it is influenced by a Persian version of a Chinese model. This contrasts with the design of the central roundel, which is clearly of purely Indian inspiration. Scenes of fighting elephants are common in Indian miniatures (see for example a miniature in the Edwin Binney III collection, published in Dessai, V.N. ed.:Life at court: Art for India's rulers, Boston, 1985).
Two pieces relating to our dish were sold at Sotheby's, London, (28th April 1994, lot 303). These pieces show a particular similarity to the floral bands and the glaze of the present dish. One of them, a tear shaped ceramic box, had on the cover a painting of a lady, also apparently directly lifted from a miniature. To judge from their execution the drawing of these central figural scenes may well be the work of artists more used to working in pen and ink directly on paper.
A thermoluminescence test performed on this piece in Oxford, sample no. 581x81, estimated it was last fired between 150 and 250 years ago. This is slightly more recent than the style of the dish would suggest, althogh perfectly possible at its oldest range. The hole from which the sample was taken demonstrates the exceptionally white nature of the body.
Two pieces relating to our dish were sold at Sotheby's, London, (28th April 1994, lot 303). These pieces show a particular similarity to the floral bands and the glaze of the present dish. One of them, a tear shaped ceramic box, had on the cover a painting of a lady, also apparently directly lifted from a miniature. To judge from their execution the drawing of these central figural scenes may well be the work of artists more used to working in pen and ink directly on paper.
A thermoluminescence test performed on this piece in Oxford, sample no. 581x81, estimated it was last fired between 150 and 250 years ago. This is slightly more recent than the style of the dish would suggest, althogh perfectly possible at its oldest range. The hole from which the sample was taken demonstrates the exceptionally white nature of the body.