A Large Blue and White Charger with Coin and Floral Design
Le-So Dynasty 15th-16th c. Vietnam
Diameter: 38.75 cm
An unusually large porcelaneous charger decorated in high quality cobalt blue with a coin depiction in the center, surrounded by bands of peony petals, encased in a double line and a ring of fire or waves. The cavetto is decorated with a wide band of scrolling peonies and the flattened round rim with an abstracted cloud motif. The exterior cavetto has overlapping peony petals surrounding the unglazed foot rim and underfoot with a wide band of iron oxide brown wash.
Two variations of this coin design on Ming Dynasty Chinese wares are published in Kodansha’s Oriental Ceramics: The World’s Great Collections, Pusat Museum Jakarta volume, indicating that this was a popular motif for export wares to Indonesia in the early Ming Dynasty, and thus adopted by the Vietnamese.
Provenance:
John R. Menke Collection and thus by decent to Ellen Menke.
Literature:
Published in Stevenson-Guy’s “Vietnamese Ceramics - A Separate Tradition” Avery Press, 1997. pl. 243