TANG DYNASTY (618-907)

Sancai dishes of this size and rich design are very rare. A similar dish of larger size (38.1 cm.), from the Eumorfopoulos Collection, and now in the Victoria and Albert Museum is illustrated by M. Medley, T'ang Pottery and Porcelain, London, 1981, p. 37, pl. 25. The author proposes that the decoration on dishes of this type would have been inspired by the chased decoration on silver. Compare also to another similarly decorated sancai dish with a slightly different flowerhead design and a wavy pattern on the mouth rim, covered with a green glaze on the exterior, in the Eisei Bunko Collection, Tokyo, illustrated in Sekai Toji Zenshu, Tokyo, 1976, pl. 54.