A Chinese blue and white 'Kraak porselein' 'deer' bowl

The rounded sides are modelled slightly slightly everted at the shaped rim. The exterior is painted with panels enclosing spotted deer, the interior roundel decorated to the centre with a further deer, surrounded by panels with upright plant sprays.

Catalogue notes: Compare a very similar bowl of almost the same size held in the collection of the British Museum, London, accession no. 1973,0726.378 and published in Jessica Harrison-Hall, Catalogue of Late Yuan and Ming Ceramics in the British Museum, London, BMP, 2001, 11:56. Multiple bowls of this type are found in the Topkapi Saray Museum, Istanbul, inventory no. 15/2186.

For a discussion on this type of bowl, see Maura Rinaldi, Kraak Porcelain- A Moment in the History of Trade, London, 1989, pp. 140-141, ill. Pl. 161.