Bowl

The bowl is complete, with a small gap that has been filled with plaster and painted. It is circular in shape. Its wall is slightly flared, with a straight rim and domed top. The lower part of the wall is curved towards the bottom, which is flat. It rests on a massive ring-shaped foot, whose beveled base is free of glaze; the bottom is recessed and flat. The inner base has numerous small marks; the decoration covers the outer surface of the bowl, as well as the inner rim, wall and base. The decoration is of the Chinese or Oriental garden type, treated in Imari, and of the external brown plaster type, known as Batavia. It is hand-painted in two-tone blue underglaze, then traced and painted in iron red, with gold highlights, over glaze. The braid below the inner edge is traced in blue and outlined with a fillet. It is composed of two alternately repeated elements. One element is a plant motif traced and painted in red, bordered by two leaves traced and painted in blue, and set between arched lines traced in blue. The second element is a double latticework with spikes drawn in red. The background decoration is based on a terrace drawn in blue and painted in faded red, with tufts of grass drawn in red. The central element is a rock with a hole in it, a symbol of the Chinese philosophy of Taoism, made up of three parts arranged in a high triangle. To its right is a fence with a vertical post, drawn and painted in blue; the panels are adorned with vertical bars drawn in red. The rock is bordered by leafy stems traced and painted in blue, which support flowers traced and painted in red with gilding; some leaves are traced and painted in blue, while the others are traced in red with veins. The entire outer surface is covered with a shiny, iron-based brown coating, which also covers the top of the rim. The decoration on the inner base has been partially erased, and the gilding has all but disappeared.