ED090 Rare massive underglaze red charger of 4 medallions Hongwu 14th Century

Description

Dimension: 42.2cm Diameter 8.2cm Height
Description:
This massive charger piece is decorated in underglaze red with several bands of foliage and lotus depiction in relief with the center springs a lotus flower surrounded with four large orgival medallions of chrysanthemum-flower-centered all in a double well-spaced lines. The interior and exterior cavetto are decorated with peonies and foliage. The mouth rim is similarly packed with floral scroll encircling along the flat mouth rim.
This piece is deeply decorated with little space left unavailable painted in relief with copper oxide that formed the underglaze red coloration which often showed the volatile nature of the colorant that sometimes turned grey or oxidized leaving faint trace of the potter’s brushwork. The design is very much Middle Eastern influenced which complements the large size of this vessel which was used for communal dining of the 14
th
century particularly for the Middle Eastern and Central Asia communities. Often rice is piled upon this charger and meat, vegetables and nuts are placed on it, while the diners take scoops for consumption.
The potting is heavy with a thick transparent high gloss glaze covering the whole piece except the foot and base with is burnt orange with lots of iron oxide and traces of sand along the edge of the glaze before the foot rim.
Provenance: This piece was around for quite a while in my collection, it is alleged from one of the Riau islands, Indonesia.