Object Description
Pair of Chinese 17th century blue and white porcelain Kraak ‘crow’ cups. Made for the Dutch market but a more unusal and rarer pattern and design than many ‘crow’ or ‘krai’ cups.
The body is lightly moulded with groups of verticle’ribs down the side spaced around. the pattern to the outside shows a continual scene of an aquatic landscape with birds either perched or aas a skein flying. With various plants around the landscape.
The everted rim is barbed and outlined in blue.
The inside painted around the sides with peach sprays and to the bottom a bird perched on a rock which is where the generic term ‘crow cup’ ame from.
In Maura Rinaldi’s book Kraak Porcelain a Moment in the History of trade, she identifies this type as being made between 1595 – 1620 at Jingdezhen kilns and catalogues it as shape IV . 2. See Plate 191 for the same bowl. As the book is not easily come by i have added the photograph of the page
This type of bowl is made with finer porcelain than most and althpough painted with quick brushwork is painted with a highh quality blue. Rinaldi records that this type is not common in the west
The pair of bowls are differnet in some areas of painting so may be termed a marriage but their quick painting design would be difficult to match perfectly
A very good pair of bowls