Punch bowl

The bowl is complete; the top of the rim has lost some of its glaze, there are chips on the rim and cracks. The bowl is circular in shape. In profile, it has a slightly flared wall topped by a straight rim. The lower part of the wall is curved towards the bottom, which is flat. The bowl rests on a solid ring foot, whose beveled base is free of glaze. There is a blue painted mark in a double ring: it is a rhombus decorated with a swastika. The inner base is covered with small curved marks; the decoration covers almost the entire outer surface of the bowl, as well as the inner rim and base. The decoration is of the Chinese or Oriental garden type, treated in Imari and Green Family glazes. It is hand-painted in two-tone blue underglaze, then traced and painted in iron red, yellow, black and green, 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 groups of alternately repeated elements. One group features a plant element outlined and painted in red, flanked by two leaves outlined and painted in blue, with gold veins. The other consists of four lozenges traced and painted in blue with gold highlights, topped with four spikes traced and painted in red, and flanked by two leaves traced in black and painted in green. Between the motifs is a four-petal flower outlined in black and painted yellow. The decoration on the inner base of the bowl is surrounded by a double ring and consists of a leafy, flowering plant. The stem, as well as some leaves, are outlined and painted in blue with gold highlights. The flowers are traced and painted in red, with gold highlights, while the leaves are painted in yellow and veined in black. On the outer wall, the decoration consists of two seated scenes on a horizontal fillet traced in blue. The two scenes feature a fence, a rock with a hole in it representing the Chinese philosophy of Taoism, and a cornucopia overflowing with leaves and flowers. The fence features two vertical posts drawn and painted in blue, and panels drawn and painted in red and adorned with a latticework of square spirals drawn in red. To its right is a large rock with a hole in it, symbolizing the Chinese philosophy of Taoism, traced and painted in blue with gold highlights. At its base grows a plant with long leaves outlined in black and painted green, topped by a flower outlined in red; the same elements emerge above the rock. To the right of the rock stretches a cornucopia outlined in black. Many stems, leaves and flowers emerge from it; some stems and leaves are traced and painted in blue with gilding, others are traced in black and painted in green, while the flowers are traced and painted in red. The foot’s perimeter is decorated with two superimposed fillets.