Cut

The cut is complete; there are breaks on the edge which have been repaired with glue. It is circular in shape, with an undulating rim at the top. The wall is flared towards the rim and curves towards the bottom, which is flat. On the reverse, it rests on a ring-shaped foot, whose partly flat, beveled base is wide and free of glaze. The center is recessed and flat. The foot is imprinted with fine gravel; the decoration is molded and hand-painted in blue on the front and reverse. The molded decoration is visible in relief on the inside of the wall and in recess on the outside; it consists of bulges perpendicular to the rim, set between rectangular cartouches with rounded corners, also molded in relief. The painted decoration is vegetal, in the Kraak style from China. The inner surface of the object is entirely decorated. There is a wavy line drawn near the edge, delimiting a blue-painted background that occupies the wall. The wall is decorated with reserved compartments, divided into two alternating types. The larger compartments are shaped like rectangular cartouches with lobed corners and pointed tops; their outer perimeter is made of a single fillet, which surrounds a double fillet whose center is painted blue. Each one houses a different ribboned object, either emblems of the Eight Immortals or the Eight Precious Objects, or leafy, flowering stems, one of which resembles a peach, while another is adorned with a Ruyi head. Between these compartments are tabs of the same length, but narrower than the compartments. Topped by a Ruyi head, they are adorned with a vertical row of six pearls, separated at the center by a geometric symbol. At their base, the tongues are trimmed with two full, arched bands. The central decoration is encircled by a ring. Eight half-ovals abut against the inside of this ring, with solid fillets around their edges and alternating circles, three-legged stems or scrolls in reserve inside. The main decoration consists of an oval mass surrounded by tasselled cords and suspended from the rim by means of tasselled cords. On the reverse, alternating wide and narrow compartments are delimited by pairs of fillets and closed at the ends by a line, one near the edge and the other, double, at the junction of the wall with the foot. The larger ones feature a rectangular cartouche with lobed corners and a pointed top, surrounding a spiral encircled by four pearls or a symbol, while the others feature an elongated, solid symbol.